5 Principles of Reiki

Just for today, I will not worry

Just for today, I will not be angry

Just for today, I will do my work honestly

Just for today, I will be kind to all living things

Just for today, I will be grateful for my many blessings

How We Perceive Our Reality

I’m learning, as I listen to the audiobook, before happiness – the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change by Shawn Achor (the book’s title indicates the author is a grammatical rebel!) that happiness is how we perceive our reality. The author postulates we can have high IQ intelligence. emotional intelligence and social intelligence yet be the most pessimistic, miserable person in the room. What makes this intelligent person, who seems to have all the key elements for success, a pessimistic, unhappy person verses an uplifting, optimist?

But, not a delusional, pollyanna optimist who ignores the realties of a situation. An optimist who clearly sees all sides of a situation – and looks for a solution that will lead to success.

Positive Genius

Shawn Achor calls this optimist a Positive Genius. A positive genius is someone who consistently chooses to search and pursue the most actionable and positive route when faced with adversity.

I won’t get into the 5 hidden keys he teaches that can make everyone a positive genius. My focus of this blog is how the author speaks to how we perceive our reality.

Landscaping – A Tiny Back Story

Before I move forward to the lessons I’ve learned lately, I’ll talk a bit of a back story.

Selling a house takes work to prepare it to be ready to do so. This house we are preparing to sell was rented out for 6 years. The tenants took good care of the interior. The exterior has 6 years of neglect.

My role has been landscaping. I’ve recently completed a challenging landscaping task of laying rugged, well-used landscaping fabric to fit dimensions it wasn’t originally cut for! This was a selfie I sent my husband, in reply to his text message wondering what I was doing! I begrudgingly sent him this picture! This was as much fun as having my toenails ripped out!

Painting the Fence

Next, with landscaping almost complete and my husband in Nova Scotia doing an electrical job while I’m here in British Columbia to work on the house, I have the daunting task of painting the fence. It’s a fence with two colors – requiring patience and attention. I just can’t slop this paint on and call it done.

This task is one of three major tasks I am to complete:

1. Paint a fence that surrounds a back yard
2. Paint a relatively large deck
3. Rake weeds out of a large gravel driveway

Riveting, thrill seeking tasks these are – NOT!!! Perceiving the reality of these tasks as riveting and thrill seeking seems impossible for me!

I’d rather be spending my COVID-19 days off kayaking or hiking. However, I have a responsibility to finish these tasks in a timely manner, resulting in putting the house up for sale sooner, rather than later.

I have enough awareness to know, I can either grit my teeth and force myself through this, or somehow make them a pleasurable reality.

Wax On Wax Off

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If you are a kid of the 90’s, like myself who watched the original 1984 version of The Karate Kid in theaters, you will know the profound meaning of “Wax on, wax off”. There is a lesson to be learned in the mundane. For Daniel, it was patience to build muscle memory. For me…. (I had to pause and think about this as I stare out the window at the fence!) the lesson is making the most out of the time I have. Yes, I will make time for kayaking and hiking – but my time painting the fence has to have meaning too.

Listening to Audiobooks

I decided to listen to audiobooks while painting. I’ve listened to The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I’m listening to before happiness – the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change by Shawn Achor.

I’ve decided that painting the fence has allowed me the wonderful opportunity to listen to audiobooks. For me, sitting and reading a book is a painful process because I become bored with the book, and skip to the end. Back in the days before differentiated instruction, Grade 12 English class was torture for me! Listening to an audiobook, while I’m engaged in an activity, works for me as a means to “hear” a book!

Additionally, if I apply the traits of a positive genius and find the most actionable and positive route while painting the fence, like taking pride in my work while listening to audiobooks, I know my hard work has meaning and will help improve the value of the house when we well it.

Just For Today

I will do my work honestly, I will do my best (Rule # 4 of The Four Agreements) and practice being a positive genius!!!

S, 🌻💛