Today I would like to offer you a simple reframe,
One that can help add positivity to the day and eliminate some of the burdens and overwhelm and issues that might arise in a normal day-to-day existence.
The reframe is this,
Every time you have the thought of,
I have to do this,
I have to,
You know,
Insert your chore,
Insert your obligation,
Insert your job,
Insert the thing that you do not want to do,
Change it to,
I get to.
I get to do this thing,
I get to learn this lesson,
I get to practice this inner value.
Because the thing is,
Even with the least desirable tasks,
With things that are arising in the day,
With obligation,
There will always be a small silver lining if you can look for it,
There'll be something that you get.
It might be a lesson,
It might be a repetition,
It might be simply the opportunity to practice,
Practice meditation,
Practice your process,
Perhaps just practice patience.
I realize I'm saying basically to perform a little magic mental shift,
The reframing of,
I have to,
To,
I get to,
But the reality is,
Is that each day,
No matter how good,
Bad,
Ugly or unknown,
Each day will have things in it that are not pleasurable,
That are not desirable.
Each day will have things you get to do,
And have things that you have to do.
And since that's the reality,
You can choose where to dwell.
You can choose to focus on what you have to do,
Or you can choose to focus on what you get to do.
And if you're struggling to reframe,
It's just the simple practice of practice,
Returning your mind,
Returning your focus,
Returning your attention back to the question,
What do I get to do today?
Or what do I get today?
Your mind wanders,
You start ruminating,
You start worrying,
You start engaging with the thought of all of those things that you have to do.
You're lost in thought,
You're thinking about the future,
You're no longer present,
And you're dwelling in the endless possibility of the mundanity,
Of the drudgery,
Of the overwhelm,
Of the annoyance.
All of that stuff might happen today,
Or perhaps only a proportion of it,
But what also will happen today is something good.
You will get something positive from this day.
So why not turn your mind,
Why not ask the question,
Why not reframe and highlight what you get to do?
The silver lining,
The benefits,
What do you get from this day?
Or perhaps even what do you get from this point of annoyance?
The example I like to give was when I was on a Vipassana retreat.
There's no talking aloud,
Shared dormitories where you sleep at night,
And I'm a light sleeper,
And the person next to me was snoring,
And so was someone else in the dormitory.
My thought was,
Oh my god,
I'm not going to be able to sleep,
I have to deal with this,
I have to process it,
What am I going to do?
And then I realized,
If I get nothing else from this 10-day retreat,
I get to learn how to sleep with noisy snorers around me.
And really,
Considering that this is something that has been bothering me for my entire life,
Light sleeping,
Waking up to the slightest sound,
Not being able to go to sleep if there is noise,
That's actually a real blessing.
Don't get me wrong,
It's not going to be pleasant,
I would wish I didn't have to deal with it,
But since I have to sleep near people snoring,
I don't have to add the suffering of the annoyance and the dwelling upon that.
Instead I chose to reframe it,
I get to learn how to sleep around noise,
What a blessing.
So I encourage you,
Take a breath,
Check back in,
Look for the silver lining,
And reframe what you have to do to what you get to do.
