Mystic Messages

Aren’t there times when you would really like to throw yourself onto the floor and bang your fists while kicking your feet and screaming at the top of your lungs?  Who of us hasn’t seen a little one doing just this and envied them their ability to drop down to the floor in the middle of a department store and let their feelings out?

I remember stepping over my daughter when she threw her tantrums, allowing her to cry herself out.  She got so smart that she would move to a room with a carpet on the floor so that she wasn’t throwing herself down onto a hard kitchen or foyer floor where the tantrum wasn’t so comfortable!

But most adults have eschewed such behavior.  Or have we, really?  Maybe we don’t get down on the floor but do we shut down and ignore others when we are doing our ‘adult pout’?  Do we ‘accidentally’ say or do something that causes hurt to another when what we really want to do is throw ourselves on the floor and scream at the unfairness of it all?

Being honest with yourself, can you see a way in which you might still have some of the strategies you developed as a child working in your life today?  It’s easy to wish that the world was fair – which it is because we all get our share of lessons, some easy, some difficult — and that everyone around us treated us exactly the way we wished they would – which might be easier if we didn’t expect them all to be mind readers.  So what do we do if we find a coping mechanism at work in our life that we no longer desire to choose?

The best strategy to develop is what I call ‘The Pause Button.’  Can you learn to catch yourself reaching into your unconscious database and pulling out an inappropriate response?  Hit The Pause Button so you can be conscious about your choice of reaction/behavior.  This is what the old ‘count to 10’ maxim is all about.  Pause.  Reflect.  Act consciously.

As we move through life we are giving challenges to our personal growth and how we react to stimulus is one of the ongoing life lessons with which we must learn to deal.  What challenges do you face that you must find resources to handle?  Who in your life is bringing you practice lessons in finding your ‘Pause Button’?  And who knows exactly how to ‘push your buttons’ so that you find it nearly impossible to pause?

Challenges are with us.  Our response to challenges can change with each encounter.  Living a Conscious Life requires that we learn to grow through all our experiences.  We’re not allowed to throw ourselves onto the floor and do a tantrum anymore, even when that unconscious little child within is begging to be allowed to do just that.  Find another way.  Think about it now and tell your unconscious mind to latch onto the new, preferred response before it goes back to childhood memories and chooses that old strategy.  Plan to hit ‘The Pause Button’ when somebody pushes your other buttons.  Breathe and consider.  And make sure that your new choice isn’t just an adult form of that toddler’s tantrum on the carpet!