(How to Avoid Feeling Like a Smooshed Grape)
I’ve gotten to this slightly jaded place, where if you start talking to me about vision boards, or even mention the “law of attraction,” I start to feel a sense of cringe. A small part of me wants to roll my eyes. I guess I’m feeling more sceptical about all of that fluffy-bunny woo-woo stuff these days.
I don’t fully mean that of course. In fact, I’m making fun of myself just a little here. I’m pretty fluffy-bunny woo-woo. I’m no stranger to crystals and pendulums, herbs, essential oils, tarot cards or healing energy. I love all of that stuff. I just don’t think it’s wise to make the mistake of thinking that anything can replace hard work, motivation or perseverance.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m still a little resentful of some of the new age philosophy I bought into as a teenager (and stuck with throughout my early twenties). I’ve got a little baggage going on, because I now believe that I was only getting half of the answer. Somehow, I had absorbed the message that if you just visualized hard enough, things would fall into place.
This is perfectly encapsulated with the whole idea of “the cursed how’s.” I remember reading things that were literally telling me that I didn’t need to worry about the steps to accomplishing my dreams, aka “the cursed how’s.” I only needed to focus on the end result. The Universe would take care of that pesky bit in the middle.
Utter malarkey, of course.
Yes, visualizing is good. Yes, I think you should practice it. Heck, you should get SO GOOD at visualizing that you are able to practically smell your dreams manifesting. You should get as involved in your visualization as possible. You should try 100% to make it real for yourself.
And THEN, and see, this is the bit I was missing, you have to come back down to earth and make a plan as to how to get there. You MUST consider the “cursed how’s,” because your day only has so many hours in it. You have to turn your goals into step-by-step actions. Houses don’t buy or clean themselves. Abs don’t magically arrive just because you visualized the perfect body. Getting caught up in a daydream of end results is not the same as rolling up your sleeves and putting in the effort. You cannot wait for the Universe to pluck you out of obscurity and say, This one. I pick this one. This one’s special. Trust me. Tried it. It doesn’t work.
Please bare in mind that all of this is coming from a self-confirmed New Age hippie. I believe we can do a lot with our energy. I think there’s more to the world than meets the eye. Yes, I even believe that you can attract a better life by improving your energy. However, you also have to accept your role in the transformation. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.”
All of this doesn’t just apply to big life stuff, like dream houses, finding true love, or losing 50lbs. I think it also applies to your daily emotional wellbeing. Like, you have to take charge of your own happiness. You have to build it yourself, and protect it, and work on it, or it may not stick around.
I don’t know… maybe other people have a more robust, durable sort of happiness, but mine is not. Mine needs tending to like some kind of fussy, exotic flower garden.
I journal to deal with my “flower garden” of feelings, and the other day I wrote this:
I feel like I am being smooshed like grapes for wine. Like someone is dancing on my soul. Like they are gleefully crushing it beneath their disgusting bare feet. (Ha. These days, I’m not even so hung up on the wine, just the smooshing.)
Ok, so my soul is being smooshed. What now? Do other writer-types feel this way? Do they feel like their 9-5 is sucking away their creative potential? Their time? Their energy?
Ha ha. I’m writing this while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office and Sheryl Crow’s “If it Makes You Happy” just started playing. Personally, I think that was a little heavy-handed of the radio.
Yeah, my personal journal rants and a little dramatic, but the bad feeling of being “crushed” was, I think, due to my lack of organization/motivation in keeping up my own happiness-inducing habits. For me, those habits, those “cursed how’s” are so important. My fussy, exotic flower garden requires: adequate and regular sleep, cardio and strength training contained in 4-6 workouts a week, time for writing, time for reading, time for singing, healthy well-balanced plant-based meals, time for meditation and time spent with friends and family. If I start lacking in any one area, I am off. Life is bad. My emotions get…well, you saw the journal entry!
The only way to get it all done, and to avoid the “my soul is being smooshed” feeling, seems to be to schedule my life, and then maintain the motivation to actually carry through with my plans.
I’m drawing attention to that last bit because I feel like that’s where I tend to fall down. I can come up with a great schedule/plan and then get distracted, or get busy with something else, and all of a sudden it’s 10:30PM, and my real goals for the day are yet to be accomplished.
And I wind up feeling like a smooshed grape.
Vision board away. Feel free to send your hopes and prayers. (You can even send ‘em my way!) Maintain a rule of “good vibes only.” Just remember, it’s still you who has to put in the grind and the effort. You are the only one capable of rowing away from the rocks.
Critical Happiness 