Today's Top Story: Flying Monkeys Feed on Joy

(Photo: Greg Springer)


It's Quotable Quotes day again! On the agenda: Positivity. <--I had no idea that was a real word.

"Thoughts are energy. And you can make your world or break your world by thinking." -Susan S. Taylor

Now there's a true statement if I've ever heard one.

Like so many writers, I tend to live too much in my head. My friends laugh at me because I joke about being happy/sad/excited/angry/etc over a situation that never happened. I assume I know how something would go down in real life (should it occur at all!), and I react accordingly. The problem is, more often than not, it's not real. It's just a flying monkey in my brain, howling about how someone might steal his unicycle.

As sad as it is to confess, I've been angry with my husband for something he never did or said. I know him well, so I figure, "Hey, if I blah, blah, blah, he'd just come back at me with blah, blah, blah." BAM! Now I'm mad! No, it doesn't make sense, but that's the way my mind works. Flying monkeys, people.

Needless to say, I've had to learn to rework my brain.

"Yeah, but what does this have to do with your thoughts being energy and the rest of the sane world who doesn't flip out over nonexistent issues, you freakish woman?" you might ask on a really long breath. And my answer to that is, "A lot."

So many people stress over things that are way beyond actual fact. Just like me, they assume then the monkey kicks in. Take this thought for example: "What if so-and-so doesn't like my book? What if they give it a bad review? Maybe I should just scrap the whole project, give up on writing, and become a monk!"

Well, first of all, calm down and take a step back. Now then, you can go two ways here. A) Shut your brain off, which is super hard and oftentimes leads to death, or B) Rewire the crazy thoughts and direct them toward something useful or relaxing...like origami.

Seriously though, why worry about something that might never happen to begin with? Why get angry at someone who may very well LOVE your story? Why? Don't focus on things outside of your control, and don't worry about tomorrow--it'll take care of itself. When you do this, you carry that energy with you. And we've all heard it in various forms: You are responsible for the energy you bring into a room. Why make that energy bad?

My wonderful friend Chi and I have these unspoken rules.
* We only send positive vibes out into the universe. No doubting allowed.
* We say when this happens instead of if when it comes to goals. We expect it no matter what.
* We have guidelines in place so one never focuses too much on the outside world's idea of what works. Goodness knows that is never a great idea!
* After a fit of irritation, we take a deep breath and find the good things that are happening.

It's been pointed out in the past, your mind is a battlefield. Good thing is, you're the one waging war and you get to decide what thoughts are on the front line. Angry monkey or relaxing origami? Choose wisely though. I wholeheartedly believe your energy will carry you as far as you like!

What does your energy say about you?