Up until today, I thought I was going to share with you some ideas about a different topic. Then, this morning, after watching the news and ominous weather predictions for eastern Canada, a very different idea has popped up and it is being persistent. The idea is to talk about tomorrow – your tomorrow, my tomorrow, and our collective tomorrow. What does your tomorrow look like? How do you plan for tomorrow? What drives that plan? What impacts that plan? How do you put that
plan into action? How do you feel about the outcome of the plan? Did you know, just as we can create our dreams into our reality (as we talked about last newsletter) we also are constantly creating our tomorrow. Let me explain…
When someone askes you “What does your tomorrow look like?” how do you respond? Most people respond with a list of tasks they need to accomplish or activities they have planned to do. That plan may be rooted in any of the following:
Need or necessity that is required for a safe, stable, healthy life. For example, shopping for groceries so the family has food for the next week.
Established routine or habit. For example, going for your daily run or Monday being “laundry day.”
Desire, wish or aspiration where the outcome is enjoyment or satisfaction. For example, “I want to have some down time to read a new book or play with my kids or sleep in.”
Obligation/duty/contract/ promise where there is a social, moral, or legal requirement. For example, going to work or door to door canvassing in your neighbourhood for a charity or visiting a sick relative as promised.
Fear where we are responding to a current or anticipated threat. For example, submitting your taxes before the deadline so you don’t have to pay or interest on taxes owing.
What feeling do you attach to your plan for tomorrow? The feelings we attach to our actions creates what our tomorrow will look like. Those feelings create what kind of an experience we will have - whether tomorrow will be what we consider a great day, a boring day, or the “day from hell.” Let’s look at each of the above as examples:
Shopping for groceries can be anticipated with a negative feeling such as dreading maneuvering large crowds and long check out lines in a big box grocery store OR being excited or relieved about all the money you will save from purchasing the items you need that are on sale. Which way do you choose to look at the planned actions rooted in necessity?
How do you feel about your routine actions? Do you dread that run but go anyways because you know “it is good for you”? Do you resent having to do the laundry but know you must do it so you and your family have clean clothes to wear? OR do you look forward to the euphoric adrenaline high from your daily morning run or the personal feeling of
accomplishment or satisfaction when the mountain of laundry is neatly folded?
Are you excited or happy as you look forward to your downtime, play time or sleep in time? Or do you sabotage your plan by expecting something to happen to disrupt that plan, to take away those positive activities for you?
How do you view going to work or meeting other obligations? Are they “necessary evils” like going to a job you loathe but it pays a good salary? Or are you grateful to have a job with a good salary? Are there things about the job that you can look forward to? For example, despite having to do some tasks that you don’t enjoy or find boring, do you complete them to fulfill your work contract, and focus on enjoying the good things about work like the people you work with or your beautiful office surroundings? Are you dreading doing the canvassing because you will be walking the neighbourhood in the rain? Or do you put on a raincoat, anticipate enjoying the exercise as well as the increased donations you will solicit because people will admire your dedication to canvas despite the weather? Are you anxious or sad about your upcoming visit to your ill relative because you are having trouble coping with their diagnosis? Or are you happily looking forward to seeing them because you know they love you and love having you visit?
Lastly, do you plan your actions out of fear? With thoughts of an anticipated threat/punishment creating the fear attached to your action, how do you think your tomorrow will look? How will you feel going through the day? Will the fear prevail? Will you feel pressured, angry, frantic as you work to avoid the anticipated threat of a hefty fine? How will you feel at the end of tomorrow? Will you feel even more fearful if your action didn’t mitigate the threat – maybe the government website crashed and you couldn’t submit your taxes on time? Or might you feel exhausted, drained, depressed at the end of the “day from hell” even if you did accomplish your task that fear was driving? OR will you rise above the fear to approach the task with calm determination and confidence that you will 100% mitigate the threat? Will those positive emotions support you in having a more positive experience in getting the task completed?
I think you get the picture, from the examples, that we can create the type of tomorrow we will have just by what thoughts and emotions we attach to our planned actions for the day. Sound familiar? That’s right, the cycle we talked about last newsletter in realizing our dreams, also applies to how we create our tomorrow. We really are the masters of our own destiny and we have an opportunity to create our own beautiful world each and every day.
So how can we turn tomorrow into a positive day? First, we need to make a choice regarding what kind of day we would like tomorrow to be. We all have freedom of choice in creating our own reality. The trick is to remember this as we work through the many choices we have each day. Hold onto that thought as we work though the “buts, the what ifs.” So, ask yourself – what does your tomorrow look like? If your answer is “It looks like a great day!” then you are awesome! You are creating that great day to move into. Your answer might also be, “It could be good but (you insert here something that you have attached a negative emotion to like anticipating your day of fun to be sabotaged or expressing a fear).” To create a great day, eliminate that “but.” If you put it out to the Universe that you expect something to disrupt your great day, guess what? The Universe will comply and provide that something because you expect it. Remember, the Universe is quite literal in responding to your thoughts and emotions. Lastly, is your answer “It’s not going to be a great day because (insert all the things that you have attached a negative emotion to).” Try to change your perspective to find a positive response to your plan for tomorrow. Can you be grateful that you are strong, confident, smart, loving enough to get through a tough task? Can you appreciate the wisdom that you will acquire from one of life’s lessons you might get through? Can you rise above the fear? Again, the Universe hears what you focus on and attach emotion to and will co create it with you. What kind of tomorrow will you choose?
I know, you are likely thinking “That all sounds so simple” but in truth you are feeling, as my mom used to say, “That’s a lot easier said, than done!” For many, you are 100% correct! Most of us
have gone through life based on the negative aspects of necessity, routine, obligation, and fear. Seldom do we allow ourselves to entertain our desires or wishes on a regular basis. They are often put on a shelf until we “get through” the necessary, routine, obligatory and fearful things. Does that sound familiar? Would you love to have more fun, calm, joy, excitement, fulfillment in every day? To do that, you need to go deeper than the emotion you attach to each day. You need to examine your core beliefs. What beliefs do you have that you may not even be aware of, that you base your thoughts and emotions on? Those beliefs are most often formed in childhood; sometimes they even carry over from past lives. No matter where they come from, once you identify them, you can change them.
I’ll give you an example of changing a core belief. Recently I have discovered that one of my core beliefs, right or wrong as it may seem, is that “you have to work hard to make a living.” I have worked hard from my first job at age 15 as a waitress serving sometimes rude customers lined up for a table in a hot packed pancake house making$1.65/hr (yes, I am that old!); to working as a server at various restaurants through my high school and university days; to entering my nursing career with shift work (including 12 hr night shifts) in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units; to
doing a LOT of extra work on off hours as a nursing instructor and later as a nurse manager. Only once I retired and was out of that routine and obligation was I able to stop and think, why did I do it that way? Why did I work so hard for so long? There were rewards of seeing my little patients become calm, less afraid, in less pain and recover when I cared for them. There were rewards in seeing my colleagues learn from me or benefit from times when I could support them. But there were also many hard, sad, negative days. Why was I driven to do that when it was exhausting, took time from my family and took a toll on my health? It certainly wasn’t for the money! There were no bonuses and as an educator and manager, there was no overtime pay. So, on reflection, why did I work so hard?
On working through this, I realized that I grew up seeing my dad work long hard days to support our family of seven. I heard stories of him working as a young boy, before and after school, for the local creamery. I heard about my mother being kicked out of her home at fifteen to work for a relative as a housekeeper to “earn her keep.” So, in my mind, working hard to survive was just the norm. As I kept looking at this belief, what also kept coming to me was a verse from a 19th century
poem that I learned as child. I didn’t remember the context or even the rest of the poem – just the line that I took to heart as I felt it applied to me: “Saturday’s child works hard for a living.” In fact, on tough days throughout my career, I even remember recalling the line and given I was born on a Saturday and came from a family of “hard workers” I grimly accepted “my fate.” What a disservice I did myself!! However, I also look back on my work life with gratitude for all the things it taught me and all the wonderful people I met. I truly believe things happen for a reason and on Divine timing so I am not upset about not discovering how to change this core belief until now. I won’t go into the details of how I worked through changing this belief, but I will tell you about an experience I had to verify that I am free from it. Just this week, I had an opportunity to sign onto a year of coaching support to grow my intuitive counselling service. The work that would be involved was going to be intense and fast paced requiring 100% commitment. In making my list of pros and cons, the pros outweighed the cons – I could serve more people, I would make more money, etc. My husband was supportive of whatever decision I made. I knew I could do it. I was used to working hard to have a successful outcome. But for some reason, I was torn. I couldn’t decide. The more I thought about the logic, the more confused I became. I was even having a visceral reaction, crying at one point, and not even knowing why. Then, talking briefly to my daughter and my best friend, they both asked me the same question, “Do you WANT to work that hard?” My gut response finally fought its way up through the layers of my past experience and my past beliefs to respond “NO!” I knew I could do the work but I didn’t want to. I couldn’t attach a positive emotion to the prospect of going through each day of intensive coaching. I couldn’t get excited. I couldn’t see myself waking up each day enthusiastic about “working the model.” I didn’t want to grow my service that way. I felt I had “done my time” with working hard. I thought about all the things that I enjoy about providing my service now and got excited about that! That’s when I knew I had changed my core belief of needing to work hard to earn a living.
There are many core beliefs that impact our thoughts and feelings and subsequently our actions. Why do we anticipate things to occur to disrupt our planned positive activities but not those planned out of necessity? Do we believe we are not worthy of having some fun? Are we afraid because we believe “the world is a bad place,” that “everyone is out to get you”? These are just a few more examples.
In summary, whether you look at your tomorrow either as the day (or date) after today (the present date) or as a non-specific period of time in the future, know that you can create that time to be wonderful, positive, and joyful. You can choose to create a great day by thinking about it with positive emotions. You can change any core beliefs that stand in the way of those positive thoughts and emotions. Remember you have much support in creating that positive tomorrow. The Universe is listening and your Spiritual team of your Angels and Guides are just waiting for you to ask for their help in creating that great day. Your family and friends are there to assist as well. In fact, the more of us that create a positive tomorrow for ourselves, the more that positive environment effects our loved ones and the rest of humanity – there is a ripple effect.
So, tell me, what does your tomorrow look like? I hope it will be a bright, beautiful and joy filled day! You deserve it and I know you can make it happen!
Lots of love and hugs,
Marilyn
Resources
If you would like to learn more about creating a positive tomorrow here are a few resources I have found helpful:
Authors:
Dr. Wayne Dyer – Happiness is the Way
Rhonda Byrne – The Greatest Secret
Louise Hay
Websites: Marissa Peer Sonia Ricotti - Unsinkable
Intuitive Counselling and Angel Card Readings
If you have the need for some insightful assistance on how to create a great tomorrow or simply creating a more positive life, I am offering intuitive counselling and angel card readings online or in person (in Calgary).
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