Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE

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Change how you feel

What do you do when things don't go to plan? Make the most of the situation you find yourself in.....maybe there are other benefits. This is what happened to me over the weekend. I took Friday off to go out and do some photography of the trees in their splendid autumn colours. Having not held a camera for nearly 3 months, you can imagine as a keen photographer I was having withdrawal symptoms. Can you imagine my disappointment, after leaving at dawn and driving 40 miles to the country location to find I could do no other than sit in the car with a gale and torrential rain pelting down?

Although the rain stopped for a while, it soon started again, continuing all day to a climax of the worst storm I'd seen for quite a while....and then I had to drive home in it....high speed motorway traffic all travelling at low speed.

All Saint's, Buckland, Buckinghamshire

I made the most of the day by visiting around 10 country village churches and managed to get some good images of their interiors. So all was not lost, and I felt wonderfully uplifted and 'clear' of stuff having been in so many spiritual places. Not that I'm religious at all, but I do love their quiet peacefulness; they are a million light years away from the hustle of modern life.....a place to contemplate. The light glowed through the stained glass windows bathing musty corners in a soft light casting mysterious shadows.

And after the worst possible weather on Friday, the next two days were the most glorious. And was I able to get to the country to photograph the beeches in their most colourful autumn for years? No. Commitments with family and other 'duties' prevented me from having the 4-5 hours I would need for the round trip. Sigh.....Grrr! But although my initial response was frustration and self pity....I thought there's absolutely nothing to be gained by subjecting myself to this. So I got up at 5.00am and went to my darkroom and got some wonderful prints done. Fulfillment. I had results in my hand that gave me a lot of joy and satisfaction. So, looking out at the glowing autumn sunlight, the heavenly colours on the trees and wishing I could be out there capturing images, here I was holding images of churches and feeling very fulfilled. Can one feel fulfilled and frustrated at the same time? We can switch between one mood and the other, but I doubt both opposite emotions can exist concurrently. Self pity drives one to feel 'woe is me', but the uplfiting experience of doing quality darkroom work earlier in the morning offset that. "Hey, what great stuff!" and I CAN feel good. So what emotion do I choose? You guessed right.

Emotions are all our choice. We can choose how we feel about things anytime.....all the time. If there's anything we feel that causes such grief that there is no escape, then that is our choice. I always and always choose the better emotion. There is always something for which we can feel grateful. I'm glad I had such a good day in such lovely peaceful churches. It wasn't what I planned. But I was given a different gift. We need the problems in life so we can benefit from their solution and alternative opportunities that Life presents to us.

:-)

Posted by Noël on November 20, 2006 8:17 AM | Permalink