Pivoting Until I’m Dizzy

Sometimes it’s easy.  I find my mind wandering onto a subject that doesn’t make me feel good.  I grab the thought by the tail (occasionally I can almost hear it screech with indignity), and I send it on its way.  I call another thought onto the stage, and I’m good to go.

When it comes to doing things, though, it’s more challenging.  I’m still hung up on how to feel good when I’m doing something I really don’t want to do.

It’s this freelancing stuff again.  I’m considering taking a job; it doesn’t pay nearly as well as I want it to, and I think it’s going to be a lot of work (honestly, I’d rather take about 100 naps).

I can feel the “not good feelings” when I contemplate the job (or any freelancing job—face it; I want to write my own stuff, not someone else’s).  So I stop what I’m doing and go do something else.

Yesterday’s Abraham-Hicks quote was:

“Anytime you feel negative emotion, stop and say: Something is important here; otherwise, I would not be feeling this negative emotion. What is it that I want? And then simply turn your attention to what you do want. . . . In the moment you turn your attention to what you want, the negative attraction will stop; and in the moment the negative attraction stops, the positive attraction will begin. And—in that moment—your feeling will change from not feeling good to feeling good. That is the Process of Pivoting.”

So this is me lately:

Look for freelance job, feel lousy, pivot

Bid on freelance job, feel lousy, pivot

Contemplate freelance job, feel lousy, pivot

Consider not taking freelance jobs and just waiting for Tim to win the lottery, feel lousy, pivot

Look for a freelance job, feel lousy, pivot

…..etc., etc., etc.

How do I keep on what I want when I feel like I need to do what I don’t want to get what I do want (money)?

Then again, how does doing something I don’t want (that doesn’t feel good) put me in vibrational alignment with what I do what?

Are you bored yet?

I sure am.

So moving on, pivoting again…

I’ve started a new blog, one that DOES make me happy.  No money in it, of course, but it makes me SMILE.  It’s called The Joyful Springer, and it celebrates two of my top priorities—feeling good and my dog(s).

The best time I had yesterday was when I was working on my Joyful Springer blog.  So does that mean I should do more of that and less looking for freelance jobs?  Abraham-Hicks would say yes.  Logic says no.

Do I stick with my experiment and ignore logic?

How committed am I?

Still pondering that.

In the meantime, I’m at least happy that I’m ultra-aware of when I feel less than good.  So I keep pivoting, and pivoting, and pivoting and …..

What If It’s Easier Than We Think?

Few people have tried harder than I have.  I’ve been charging after writing and financial success for two decades.  I’ve written millions of words.  I’ve amassed over 2000 rejection letters.  I’ve sold short stories, poetry, greeting card copy, essays, columns, books, and e-books.  I’ve written web articles, newsletters.  I’ve build dozens of websites and free reports and e-zines.  I’ve taken thousands and thousands of dollars worth of training and courses, not to mention the thousands more I spent getting my B.A. and law degree ….

My point is that I haven’t been sitting around on my currently rather ample ass all my life.  When I have a problem, I don’t whine about it—I DO something to try and solve it.  When I want something, I don’t just daydream about it.  I go after it.

Ever since I started selling my writing, I’ve met a lot of people who say they want to be writers.  It’s amazing the number of people who want to write.

Humans love to ask each other, “So what do you do?” [translation:  how do you make money?]  Back when I was a lawyer, when I answered that question with, “I’m a lawyer,” no one ever said to me, “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer.”  In fact, what I usually got in response to that answer was a lawyer joke … how many lawyers does it take to…….  Anyway, after I became a published author and I answered that question with, “I’m a writer,” at least half the people I met (or more) said to me, “I’ve always thought I had a book in me,” or “I’ve always wanted to be a writer.”

A few years ago, I made a new friend who told me she wanted to be a writer but after trying it, she got discouraged with the rejection.  I asked, “How many rejections did you get?”

She said, “One.”

I just stared at her.

She said, “I don’t take criticism well.”

No kidding.

So this woman wanted to be a writer, but she spent her days surfing the internet and reading books.  She actually had some talent (I read some of her stuff), but she never did anything with it.

When she asked me for advice, I said, “Write.”  If you want to be a writer, you have to WRITE, a lot.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t write.

I know I’ve wandered off course, here, but I do have a point.

I have tried HARD to achieve the success and financial freedom I want.  I have made goal lists, created vision boards and binders, written letters to God, angels, and the universe.  I have visualized and affirmed.  I have read literally hundreds of books on how to have a great life.  I have WORKED to get what I want.

And here I am with dwindling funds, not nearly the success I’ve desired, and I’m finally realizing that the secret to getting what you want may not just be visualizing it then going for it.  The secret might be just as easy as what Abraham-Hicks says it is:  feel good.

A couple days ago, the Abraham-Hicks quote was:

“There isn’t anything that I cannot be or do or have, and I have a huge Nonphysical staff that’s ready to assist me, and I’m ready.”

I’m beginning to think that I’ve been underutilizing my “huge Nonphysical staff.”  While I’ve been slogging along with my nose to the grindstone and my eye on the ball (and as my stepfather says, “How is anyone supposed to get anything done in that position?”), my Nonphysical staff has been playing volleyball on the beach and drinking fruity cocktails with little umbrellas in them.  I’ve been trying to do all this stuff myself.  How dumb is that?  It’s like the CEO of Boeing trying to build the airplanes while the engineers and machinists build mobiles out of rivets.

As I’m going after freelancing jobs, I’m getting this sense that I’m doing it again—putting in the hard work.

Abraham says that it doesn’t matter what you’re doing—you have to “get easy” about it.

So as I find myself starting to obsess over DOING the right things to get the work I want (actually I don’t want the work at all—I have so many other things I’d rather be doing; I want the MONEY), I am catching myself and wondering, what if it’s easier than we think? What if this whole nose to the grindstone, pull yourself up by the bootstraps (I don’t even HAVE bootstraps … or a grindstone for that matter), “no pain, no gain” crap that our parents, teachers, and the media has brainwashed into believing is just plain wrong?

What if it really is easy?

What if being easy, feeling good, is all it takes to have what you want?

The other day, a good friend of mine said to me, “Well, you know you can’t just sit around feeling good about something and expect it to come to you.  You have to DO something after you feel good.  That’s what The Secret said.”

I said, “Mm hm.”

But I don’t KNOW this.  In fact, I’m starting to think the whole DOING is highly overrated.

Of course, I don’t feel totally confident about this, which is why I’m doing the freelance job search.  But I AM doing it with a different attitude.  I’m still telling it like it isn’t.  In my mind, I’m a lottery winner, a very happy, free lottery winner with all the time I need.  I’m looking for things that are FUN to do.

This morning, after I slept in until nine (heavenly), I got up and walked in the forest for an hour and a half (more heavenly).  I watched Ducky play with her friend, Dixie (if you don’t smile when you see happy dogs playing, you might want to turn yourself into NASA and get tested for alien infestation).  Tim and I made whole wheat pancakes for breakfast (which we ate about noon).  Then our friend, Lyn, called and asked, “Can Ducky come out to play?”  We met her and her dog, Jake (Ducky’s best friend), at the park and watched them play for a half hour.

Now Ducky is snoozing on her bed in front of the fire.  Tim and I are playing Scrabble.  Outside, the day is peaceful and crisp.  I’m totally and completely relaxed because I’m a lottery winner (in my virtual reality).

This is the experiment, and I am ready to prove my hypothesis:  feeling good (the human equivalent to tail wags) is the secret to getting what you want.

I have sent my Nonphysical staff out to bring me the physical money that matches my lottery winner state of mind.  And if it’s going to take a little time to get that, they can bring me a freelance job to keep Ducky in dog treats until the REAL winnings come in.

I am the happy executive of my life … ready to move onto EASY street.

Anatomy Of A Lab Explosion

The experiment is perking along.  The scientist is gathering data.  All is well in Labsville.

But then …

The monkey gets out of his cage and frees the rats and the mice.  The rats and the mice turn on all the Bunsen burners.  The animals break the glass and escape.  The flames ignite chemicals in glass vials all over the lab.  Ka-BLAM!  The lab explodes.

What does the scientist do?

She wails and moans (surely).  She cleans up (hopefully).  And she starts over (if she’s determined.

Welcome to my destroyed lab.

I’m somewhere between the wail and moan phase and the clean-up phase.

My lab isn’t a place full of monkeys and rats and mice.  It has no Bunsen burners or vials of chemicals (though certain chemicals could be helpful at this point J).

My lab is life.  And the experiment was:  make my top priority finding reasons to feel good to see if feeling good is the secret to creating the life you desire.

In order to test my hypothesis, one element must be in place.  I MUST feel good.

Yesterday, I stopped feeling good about noon.  I tried to find relief and get back to feeling good.  I stopped and wrote about Ducky.  I used the chi machine.  I had a healthy, yummy meal with Tim and we talked about things we want.

I still didn’t feel better.

I looked around the house at things I appreciate.  I cuddled with Ducky.  Tim and I watched a show that makes us feel good (Extreme Home Makeover).  I still didn’t feel good.

In fact, the more I tried to feel good, the worse I felt.

I was sucked back into the previous year, remembering how I felt at the start of last year, thinking that the year was so filled with promise.  We’d received this great insurance settlement.  We were fixing up the house.  I thought I had months of freedom and time ahead of me to do my writing without pressure.  I thought we were on the verge of something amazing.  Truly, I did.

Then in August, I discovered my sense of freedom was an illusion.  We had no money and all our credit cards were charged to the hilt.  I went from happy and focused to devastated and confused.

Now, we get 10 to 20 creditor calls a day.  They’re like little Red Alert sirens going off in the background, yanking me out of my everything’s-going-to-be-okay place.

The books and screenplays I’ve written are stalled on someone’s desk—no sales yet.

And yes, I know I’m telling it like it is, not like how I want it to be.  Which is why I feel so lousy.

I got hung up on the intentions, I think.  Abraham says to intend your way through your day—they call it segment intending:  decide what you want before you go into each part of your day.  I’ve tried this many times off and on through the last few years.  I’ve yet to have a day go the way I intended it to go.  So I get pissed off (I don’t think that’s part of the process).

Then there’s that placemat process—you put on one side of the page what you’ll absolutely do that day and on the other side of the page, you write down what you want the universe to do.  I’ve done that many times too, and I’ve yet to have the universe do anything on its list.

Still, I’m a determined woman.  So yesterday, I tried again.  I got up and intended that I’d easily find a freelance writing opportunity, one that paid well.  I’d apply and get the job and I’d be on track to make enough money to give us some security while Tim gets himself lined up with that lottery he keeps telling me he feels like he’s won.  I put getting me those jobs on the universe’s side of the to do list.

By late afternoon, I was slogging through 38 pages of how-to-use-Elance so I could take a stupid test on how to use their site, and I was NOT having a good time.  I was having a MISERABLE time.  It didn’t feel good at all.  I tried to find a new attitude.  All new attitudes were in hiding.

Everything came crashing down on me.  This is NOT the life I envisioned.  I’m on the verge of 50 years old.  I’ve worked for 20 years to be a successful writer.  I thought I had it made when I broke into the big publishing world.  I sold books and was sure my career was taking off.  I was wrong.  I threw every bit of my energy into building a business.  I failed.  I thought I understood how to attract what I wanted, and I attracted a freak accident that left me with a permanent limp and an ankle that hurts pretty much all the time.

I’m PISSED OFF!!!!!

Ka-BLAM!  That’s when the lab exploded.

So much for feeling good.

I cried off and on all evening.  Even Ducky’s sweet attempts to comfort me (head on my shoulder, little tail wags, a nose to my neck that said, “I’m here; it’s okay.”) didn’t help.

Abraham and many spiritual writers talk about what Abraham calls “the path of least resistance.”  This means that for all you do, you find the path that feels the best.  Trust your gut, your instinct.  You know when a course of action feels good and when it doesn’t.

But what if neither course of action feels good?  What if you can’t find one that feels good?

There’s where I am.  That’s the monkey that started all the mischief in my lab.

Scrabbling for these writing jobs doesn’t feel good.  Call me a writing snob, but I’ve worked too hard for too long and developed a skill set that is too valuable to be jumping through hoops so I can bid on projects that don’t compensate me well enough.  I HATE the idea.  I HATE the process.  It makes me feel yucky and very, very small.  It makes me feel like a failure.

And yes, I know that nothing can MAKE me feel anything.  So, I’ll rephrase that.  I am allowing myself to feel small and like a failure.

So my other choice is to keep churning out book proposals because I enjoy doing that, even though I know none of these can lead to a sale within the time I need such a sale.  I need money coming in before April to stave off disaster.  The book industry doesn’t move that fast unless you’re a celebrity in the middle of a scandal or a criminal who’s done something heinous and gotten away with it.

So that path doesn’t feel right.

Do I just enjoy myself—return to my drawing and piano playing and walking my dog and taking long baths and trust that Tim won’t let me down?  Believe that he’ll win that lottery?

But I don’t believe that he’ll win in the next two months.  I know it’s POSSIBLE—but do I feel like I can count on it?  No way.  He’s been telling me he’s going to win for over two years.  Why would he finally do it now?

So that path doesn’t feel right.

Are there other paths?  Probably, but I don’t see them now.

Sell the house, move to another place and get a job.  HATE that idea.

I love my house and where I live.  I had this place built to my specifications.  I created this lifestyle.  When I think about leaving it, I feel like I’m going to throw up.  That’s not a feel good path, obviously.

So what is my path of least resistance?  I thought I had it figured out.  Get freelance work.

Yesterday I found out that the path to freelance work doesn’t feel good either.

So I’m stuck.

And that’s why my lab exploded.

My goal was to feel good for 30 days and see what that brought me.  I didn’t even last 11 days.  Experiment tainted.  Data in ashes.

What do I do?

Start over.

I must.

But what’s the path that leads me to that feel good place?

I don’t know yet.

So for right now, I’m moaning and cleaning up.

Turning My Boat

A couple weeks ago, I had this idea to look for freelance writing and editing work online.  I did a preliminary search of the opportunities in this area and found a couple sites that looked worth signing up for.  I decided to get my Puppies Interrupted proposal done before I went further.

So yesterday, Tim and I had an incredible day celebrating the 9^th anniversary of the day he arrived in my town and moved in with me.  I had no trouble feeling good all day—it was a pure feel-great day!

I got up this morning feeling energized and upbeat.  Ducky and I had a great walk by the bay (more on that in a second).  I came home and went to work signing up for the sites.

I’ve been signing up for sites and looking for jobs for three hours now, and I don’t feel good at all.

I’m trying to find a way to feel good about this, but at the moment, having an oh-boy-I’m-a-published-author-who-has-worked-her-tail-off-to-create-financial-and-creative-success-and-now-I-have-to-scrounge-for-a-job-woo-hoo feeling is basically beyond me.

Today’s Abraham quote included this:

“We would never move forward in the face of negative emotion.”

I have a container-ship-load of negative emotion right now.  Moving forward with my job search, therefore, is counterproductive.

I started this freelance search with enthusiasm for the idea of bringing in some regular income working at home doing what I love to do and am good at (i.e., writing).  But the more I’ve searched, the worse I’ve felt.  Most of the work I’ve found isn’t work I feel excited about.  The process of applying for it is lengthy and time-consuming.

I want to write my own books.

I want to sell the ones I’ve written.

I want to be free to choose my projects.

Wah, wah, wah.

NI, NI, NI.

I feel discouraged, frustrated, angry, and sad.  Yuck

I feel ashamed and embarrassed that after all I’ve accomplished in my field, I’m going after work I don’t even want just to survive financially.

I KNOW there’s a better way to look at this.

Abraham has this upstream/downstream analogy about life:  when you let go of the oars and flow downstream (i.e. feel good, thereby aligning with your inner self), you easily float to all you desire; when you row hard upstream (work, struggle and feel bad in the process), you’re moving away from what you desire.

My boat is definitely headed upstream right now.

So, because the negative emotion isn’t helping me with the process of applying for these jobs, and because the negative emotion DEFINITELY goes against the spirit of my feel-good experiment, I stopped what I was doing so I could write this post.

I stopped to think about something that feels good.

Enter my tried and true heroine of all-that-feels-good:  Ducky.

This morning, the wind was blowing about 20 m.p.h. on the beach.  It was cold and foggy, and the tide was coming in.  Ducky had a blast chasing sandpipers, seagulls, and crows.  She also went after whatever was blowing across the sand.

Today’s offerings included bits of seaweed, pieces of crab shell, and chunks of Styrofoam (from floats).  All were equally fascinating to Miss Ducky.

Watching her chase that stuff is a riot.  She races after it and pounces on it.  Most of the time, the wind whisks away her prize before she can claim it.  She sees it continuing on its mad journey down the beach and she races after it again.  Run.  Pounce.  Wag tail.  Run.  Pounce.  Wag tail.  From time to time, she captures what she wants.  She usually eats it (no matter what it is), then wags her tail and starts the process again.

Ducky is my feel-good guru.  Not only does she make me smile, she shows me the process of going after what I want.

Following Ducky’s method is a good idea:  You go after it (align with it), feeling good along the way.  If it gets away, you go after it some more, still feeling good.  When you get it, you feel good.  When you’re trying to get it, you feel good.  It’s all about feeling good.

Ducky isn’t as interested in the capture as she is the chase.

That’s the secret of feeling good.  If we can feel good along the way to what we want, more of what we want will come.

I know this.  So feeling bad about these jobs isn’t an option.

I have to see it as a game or a challenge or not do it at all.

What I really want (the lottery, the book sales, the freedom to do what I want) is coming—BUT it will only come if I line up with it.  Feeling lousy while applying for writing jobs is not helping me.

So I choose to feel better.  And I do.

Thanks, Ducky.  You did it again.

What A Difference A Little Time Makes

Ducky turned six months old today.  🙂

In a mere six months, Ducky has come a long, long way.

Just think.  A year ago, Ducky was pure energy, not even a blink of an idea in her sire’s mind.  Six months and one day ago, Ducky was blind and deaf, confined to her mother’s womb.

Even three months ago, Ducky was pretty limited.  Of course, by then, she could see and hear.  She’d learned to eat solid food and play with her siblings and her mom.  She’d discovered toys, rawhides, and fetching a ball.  But she spent most of her time in a kennel.  She didn’t know anything about being out in the world.

And now?

Ducky is a remarkably mature six-month old dog.  Unlike many dogs her age, she knows to hang out quietly sleeping or entertaining herself with toys or by exploring her fenced yard while Tim and I are working or watching a movie.

She knows that when we pick up her food bowl and get out the plastic container that contains her Darwin’s raw food, she’s going to get fed.  She knows she won’t get fed if she jumps on the counter or us.  So she hovers in an antsy sort of butt-wiggling sit and makes little squeaking sounds while she waits.  She knows she has to sit and stay or lie down and stay in front of her bowl until we say, “Okay.”

Ducky has learned and executes:  sit, down, stay, come, heel, high five, roll over, reach for the sky (she’s supposed to throw both paws in the air), stand (on two feet), off, leave it, bring it, and give.  When you wave at her, she enthusiastically throws up a paw to wave back.

She knows what’s okay to chew on and what isn’t—we don’t have to worry about her destroying things in the house.

She knows about “going in the car,” and she waits quietly in the car when we leave her in it while we go into stores or restaurants.

She knows, “get in your crate” and does so without protest.

She’s met many dogs and many people, and she’s learning how to act with them all.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  She went from nonphysical to physically limited to wild puppy to well-mannered young dog.  In just a few months.

A few days ago, I mentioned the pilings that have been revealed in the sand on the beach by the bay near where I live.  A few years ago, they weren’t there.  Now they’re over 12 feet high.  The ocean’s energy is relentless.  The sand had to move.

The universe’s energy is also relentless.  Life can change SO fast.  It may seem bleak now, but as Annie says, “The sun will come out tomorrow.”  We can’t count on THAT where I live—we get a lot of rain, but I can count on change being right around the corner.

Looking at Ducky’s young face and all her newly acquired worldly wisdom makes me feel good.  Finding something to remind you that the current circumstances can change very soon is a great way to feel good.

The other reminder I tap into often is the fact that in December 22, 2000, I was single with no prospects of being otherwise anytime soon.  Tim was ending a marriage with a woman who hadn’t appreciated him for a very long time, and he had no sign that a better relationship was coming.  On January 27, 2001, Tim and I were living together, deeply in love and much-appreciating one another.  Life can go from bad to good SO FAST!  I love that!

So Happy Six Month Birthday, Ducky!  Thanks for reminding us that even if it sucks today, tomorrow life can be just ducky.

It’s MY Job

So Tim is on the floor, lying on his back.  I have the sofa pushed forward, lifting the back of it off the ground.  Tim’s task:  tack onto the bottom of the sofa the edge of a length of fleece that drapes over the back of the sofa.  My job:  don’t drop the sofa on Tim’s head.

Enter Ducky, The Great Always Present Helper.

If you have a dog, you know about this role that canines like to play.  A well-adjusted dog wants to be with you as much as possible.  She wants to be RIGHT THERE, in the midst of whatever is going on.  This is normal dog behavior.

So Ducky sticks her face between Tim and the push-pin he’s trying to tap into place.  “Whatcha doing, Daddy?” her wagging tail communicates.

Tim, apparently, wasn’t in the mood for The Great Always Present Helper.

“Seriously?” he snapped.  “You’re really going to be right here?”  He shoved Ducky away.

Ducky didn’t take it personally.  She ignored his annoyance.

I, unfortunately, didn’t.

“Relax!” I snapped at Tim.  “Why are you so edgy?”  (Said the pot, calling the kettle black.)

Tim’s reaction pissed me off.  You’re wondering why, probably—his reaction wasn’t so unreasonable.  He was trying to do something awkward and Ducky wasn’t helping.

Here’s where my response to his annoyance came from:

For months, Tim has been telling me that he’s totally aligned with prosperity.  In spite of our bank balance, our debt, and the relentless creditor phone calls, he feels like a millionaire.  If he’s telling the truth, it’s an amazing accomplishment, don’t you think?  Being able to feel like you want to feel instead of feeling the way circumstances could make you feel is the key to making the law of attraction work for you.

Me?  I don’t feel rich.  I feel like a living, breathing financial disaster.

So I’ve been counting on Tim to pull all that financial abundance to us.  It eases my mind to know that he feels like all is well.

BUT here’s the problem.  I know how the law of attraction works, and I know what alignment is supposed to do.  Feeling prosperous has to bring you prosperity.  So where is Tim’s prosperity?

This has concerned me for some time.  I tend to pick at ideas that concern me.  I gnaw at them and poke at them, turning them this way and that.  This one has driven me nuts.  If Tim is as aligned as he says he is, why is our financial situation so lousy?  Shouldn’t money be coming his way?  Does this mean that Abraham is full of nonphysical hot air?

Or is Tim not as aligned as he claims to be?

I have read thousands of spiritual, religious, and philosophy books.  I’ve studied many spiritual disciplines and listened to a lot of dogma.  Nothing has made as much sense to me, felt as viscerally and intuitively and resonantly RIGHT to me as Abraham’s teachings.  They make sense to me on a cellular level.  Nothing else has felt the way these teachings have—they’re to my soul as a pair of perfect slippers is to my feet.

So I’m not willing to believe that these teachings are wrong.

So what am I to conclude about Tim’s alignment?

He’s not as aligned as he thinks he is.

This annoys me.  He’s my “I’m SURE I’m winning a lottery” guy.  He’s my hope for that ahhh financial freedom.

So when he gets annoyed, I get pissed.  Dumb, I realize.  But, as I tell him, when you get out of alignment over one thing, you’re out of alignment over everything.

So why get out of alignment over the enthusiastic nosiness of one little puppy?

But here’s what I reminded myself as soon as I felt that annoyance at Tim when he snapped at Ducky (thank heavens for my guidance system—that annoyance was telling me that I was out of alignment):  Tim’s alignment isn’t my problem.  It’s not my job to police HIS alignment.  It’s my job to pay attention to my own.

When I started this 30 day feel good experiment, I decided that what Tim was or wasn’t doing with his alignment wasn’t my problem.  I was going to focus on my own.

Remember the movie, Major League?  Late in the movie, in the pivotal game near the end, the character Pedro Cerrano, worshiper of the voodoo god, Jobu, comes to bat.  He’s been making offerings to Jobu for weeks, trying to get Jobu’s help with his batting.  But now, he’s done with Jobu.  He says, “I stick up for you Jobu.  You no help me now … I say fuck you Jobu.  I do it myself!”

And there is a fine piece of advice.  I want financial security?  It’s up to ME to create it, by focusing on MY thoughts, and MY emotions, and MY alignment.

I create my reality.  Thinking about Tim’s alignment doesn’t feel good.  So I’m turning my attention to my own.

Access To Good Feelings

I had to get something from Tim’s desk.  Tim has a sign on his desk that says, “I’m too busy to be neat.”  Need I say more about the state of his workspace?  I usually have to dig if I want to find anything.

So I was digging, and unfortunately, my excavation unearthed some rejection letters from agents to whom I’ve been submitting screenplays and other projects.  Tim, bless him, checks our P.O. box and keeps track of my submissions.  He doesn’t take them personally; I do.  I saw those letters, and I felt my energy plummet.  I felt bad, and I knew it.

What was I feeling?  Anger?  Disappointment?  Sadness?  Probably all of the above and other gems like shame and fear.

In the past, I would have wallowed in these feelings for a bit.  But I’m in the first week of my feel good experiment, so I wasn’t going to indulge in that crud.

Find something to feel good about, I commanded myself.  Convincing myself I’m a great writer at that moment wasn’t exactly within my reach.  Telling myself that my work will find the right home didn’t work either.  I needed to get off the topic of writing and selling completely.

I spotted Ducky sprawled on the sofa.  She looked up at me and wagged her stub of a tail.  I approached her, and her whole body wiggled.  I sat down and hugged her.  Ahh.  That felt better.

Abraham says we don’t have to go from feeling bad to perfect joy; all we have to do is feel relief.  Pet my dog—feel relief.  Works every time.

Thank the universe for Ducky!  She’s my fastest access to feeling good most of the time.  This morning, I grinned nonstop for 45 minutes while I watched her play with her friend in the woods.  That’s some seriously great alignment there!

Dogs are poster beings for great vibrations.  Such joy!

If you don’t have a dog, find something that lights you up.  We all need something to flip the switch from sad to glad.  The life we want to live depends on it.