That into which we breathe life, grows. This is especially true for positive and negative mindsets. When we foster positive thoughts and project good things happening, we call in this energy and ask the Universe to bring us more. The same is true of negative thoughts. If we hold space for doubt, worry, the ‘worst’ which could happen, we give life and energy to those outcomes and subconsciously, we are inviting them to happen. Once we realize the weight of our intentions, we may bring awareness to our thinking and shift into fueling how we desire to live and feel.
Two broader mindsets are the basis for our positive or negative sentiments: expansiveness versus contraction. Auspiciously, we possess the power to choose which mindset we grow. When living in a place of expansion, we consistently fuel the energy around us with positivity. We celebrate happy moments, from the minutiae to the significant. We also seek the ‘silver lining’ in challenging situations, trusting that everything which happens bears a gift – a gift from which to learn or a gift to revel and enjoy. When we regard life with a consistent gratitude for everything that it offers, whether inherently positive or through challenge, we create openness, willingness and readiness to meet life as it comes. Our ideas become like planted seeds and our positivity is the rainfall and sunshine which helps the idea grow, blossom and bloom. We give it the energy to succeed.
In a state of contraction, we find ourselves close-minded and resistant to new opportunities, new information and change. We readily find the dark clouds in the sky and in doing so, we invite negativity to pervade our minds. In contraction, we may feel like we are doomed, causing us to search for evidence to support this feeling, rather than entertaining how the feeling may be untrue. Deep beneath these feelings of despair lie fears of the unknown and a general sense of distrust. When we live with such negativity, we fuel more fear, create suffering of our own choosing (aka misery), feel depressed and close the doors for dreams and hope. Living this way is joyless. Rather than plant a seed and watch it grow, being in a contracted state is akin to smashing the seed to bits before placing it in the soil, essentially sabotaging any opportunity for life before it even has a chance.
With awareness, we may begin to better identify those storm-cloud days and then consciously choose to change our relationship with them. Generally, we start to sense contraction as feelings of lack - lacking money, lacking time, lacking confidence, lacking emotion, lacking connection. Lack feels like we need to control something and so we desperately strive to make things happen, compensating for what we perceive to be missing. In doing so, we become closed off from opportunity and our mindset narrows. When the feeling of lack arises, it is the catalyst to know we’ve shifted out of a mindset of expansion. Recognizing this gives us the opportunity to instead invite in appreciation and abundance. It’s about taking a new perspective of the situation.
Living with a mindset of expansion is about focusing our minds to what is already available and giving our energy to cultivate more of it. With a practice of deep gratitude for what we currently have, we signal to our guides and the Universe that we are in a state of abundance. We may then gently ask for more of what we desire, manifesting the tools to continue living in alignment. When we feel good about what is possible, we start believing in increased possibility and provide the fuel for more positive outcomes. As the saying goes, ‘laughter [like positivity] is contagious,’ and as we create more positive feelings for ourselves, we increase the opportunity for more. When calling in this powerful energy, we must remember to come from a state of expansion, not one of pleading with the Universe to make things different or better. Pleading is the same as striving, and in doing so, we return to a state of contraction.
The beauty of the human experience is that we possess a unique super-power: choice. We cannot control anything happening around us, nor anyone else. We may only control how we respond to the world in which we live. Famously told as the story of two wolves and the struggle for which will win - good or evil – the answer lies with ‘the one you feed.’ The choice to see our lives and experience life with abundance and expansion is solely in our control. We curate this by practicing gratitude, waking with a sense of appreciation for simply being alive, finding the happy moments of the day and pointing our minds to focus on all that goes well. As we continue honing our mindset, we gain more confidence and resilience to weather through the harder moments of the day. We begin to readily see the glimmers of brightness, whether in the gift of a life lesson, appreciation for our courage to rise above struggle and darkness, or through leaning into overall greater joy.