Soulshine

The relationship between thoughts and feelings is interesting. Some thoughts evoke appropriate feelings and some don’t. It seems natural that negative thoughts are going to evoke negative emotions, right? I mean it’s pretty hard to be beaming with joy when we have a head filled with angry thoughts. The moment angry thoughts enter our consciousness, they are going to produce angry feelings. But it doesn’t always work this way. For example, I directed a retreat recently where I managed to give my personal power away to a negative person. The retreat was actually going smoothly. Everyone was participating and everyone seemed to be “getting it,” except for this one person. I had the sense that maybe this person was on the wrong track, and that seemed to be confirmed the next morning when he returned the book I’d recommended to our bookstore for a refund. Sometimes this happens. Occasionally, there will be a person who reads what they needed into a retreat description, instead...

“I’m never afraid. I Never look down. I always look up. That’s why I’m a very remarkable fellow! It’s wonderful the things I feel… Sometimes I could reach out and touch a star!” Chico, 7 th Heaven (1927) Positive thinking makes a tremendous difference in our lives. It’s all about perspective. And growing up in an alcoholic household didn’t allow me the chance to develop much in the way of a positive perspective. I spent most of my childhood feeling pretty hopeless. And the older I got, the less hope I had that things were going to get better. My teen-age years were far worse than my preteen years. Certainly, I learned to look down a lot, and if I felt remarkable in any way, it was remarkably worthless. I had learned to give all of my power away to my parents and that started a trend. Likewise, I gave my power away to mean-spirited teachers, peers and even complete strangers. I had learned to be the perpetual victim, who freely gave his power away because he felt ...