Redirection

It’s so hard not to get caught up in…things. It’s especially harder now because phones make it easier for all of us to have scrolliosis. Not only do we keep looking, we also let whatever annoys us fester. Take the phone away and we all still have moments in our lives when we get caught up in the emotions of others, things that sometimes go wrong that we don’t feel like we can fix, and just the anxiety and fear that we don’t know what’s coming or maybe where we’re going.

That’s only the short version of what we can get fixated on. And what keeps us from moving forward.

Some years ago, I was caught in a wrath of challenges in my life. I really wanted to move forward yet found it hard to and wasn’t sure how to do it. Finally, feeling exasperated that I needed to figure out some way to ease my mental anguish quickly so it didn’t keep trying to take over, I somehow came up with something that actually worked for me.

I used my rosary– something that I never actually prayed with as it’s meant to be used, instead choosing to hold it in times of need feeling it would bring me relief– and each bead represented a mantra. The one I used was:

All is well.

I would repeat this as many times as it took for me to feel relief and the ability to shift direction from the rabbit hole/viscious cycle I was in and think and do something else. The interesting part was that it only took a few beads, usually four, and then I was able to move on.

Last week I found myself looking at something and quickly getting irritated. I didn’t reach for the rosary, but instead I have spent enough time over the years developing this skill that I was able to quickly shift direction and move on from what was irritating me.

It didn’t happen overnight, but it did get easier the more I worked at it. And it’s been part of the road of helping me to keep trekking forward in my life.