Thursday, June 6, 2024
Last night I was on a plane, cramped in the back and miserable. I felt like my arm was being twisted and that my circumstances needed to turn around; but, wallowing in the unpleasantness only tightened the screw. When your arm is twisted, you can’t turn around the situation, you can only turn yourself around and release the tension. I did this by settling into my seat and comforting myself with thoughts of being home, cozy in my bed. I relaxed as I envisioned my desired future.
The next morning, my personal trainer twisted my arm again. He put me through the ringer. Every set was torture. I had to go through the storm, not around it. I had to envision the results, the freedom, the advancement of being fit. Being in a bind hurts. Staying in a bind is insidious. Recognize the opportunity to turn it around – that’s the key.
Sickness, pain, and suffering come. You notice yourself in a snit, then you relax and untwist. Once you notice the pain, get to work on the potential gain. The key hides in the quickness of your turnaround rate. Don’t complain when you’re in a bind, uncomfortable, hungry, sick, or in pain – that tightens the screw. Put your envisioning power to work by devising an escape, and that loosens it.
The way to get out of sickness or pain is not by wallowing in the fact that you haven’t freedom, but in wallowing in the luxury of your creative ability to untwist and to out-picture potential freedom. That’s the key to constant liberty – your arm is in a twist and to unlock it, you turn around. Don’t demand that the situation or “the other person” turn around. Nothing is twisting your arm, except a temporary blindness to the fact that you are causing the pain by not doing an about-face, realizing your inflexibility, and acting upon your creative potential.