Daily Gratitude: “What is remembered is not the event, but the meaning.”

Isn’t this so true? And before you do the “naysayer” thing, I feel the event is important because it stimulates the deeper memory- the meaning.

Think back to all the memories you have, good or bad. If you saw the event on a tv show involving other people, what would that event mean to you then? Would you have the same feelings and emotional response in you? I doubt it.

It’s all about emotions. If you were playing a softball game and you won would you respond in the same way on a day when your life is going well compared to a day when a loved one is sick and in the hospital? I doubt it.

But what’s different. On both days your team won the game. But your response is different because the meaning is different. When someone you love is sick, your attention and your emotions are focused on your loved one, not the game. Does that make sense?

The point of the quote is to help you understand why similar events may not elicit similarly meaningful memories.

Daily Gratitude: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself.”

It’s so important to recognize the barriers you have deep inside. What is keeping you from doing all you desire? What are your limiting beliefs? If you feel there are limitations to what you can do, then you’ll be frustrated.

What this quote is really saying is something I’ve learned in the past 6 years. There is nothing external to you that can make you happy. You have to go within and find out what you need. This is not easy at all. I had a lot of external things abs successes. I was never happy. I don’t think I realized that though….until I began to know what happiness felt like.

You might think it’s sad that it took me 70 years to experience happiness and maybe it is but I also know it makes me appreciate it even more than if it were a given all my life.

Along with that happiness came truly feeling love. That’s probably even more sad that I never knew love for decades but it’s all ok. Some people never feel it. I consider myself so fortunate to have finally figured all this out. How? You know. It was IFS (Internal Family Systems). It is miraculous.

Daily Gratitude: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Sounds pretty obvious, huh? I’m sure you’re wondering “so what Terrie? we all know that.”

I am sure everyone knows this. However knowing it doesn’t keep people from procrastinating and then complaining about how they can’t get things done or whatever they’re doing isn’t that good because it was “rushed”.

I have known this concept for years and yet I still procrastinate. So I’m not pointing fingers. Just reminding people.

It’s also helpful to put some sort of excitement into whatever you have to do. That makes it something to look forward to.

I make lists but that doesn’t always help. I just end up moving the same thing to the next day.

My parts (IFS-Internal Family Systems) hold the secret to why I procrastinate. If I don’t finish something then no one can ever see that I’m not perfect. They can’t criticize what I’ve done. This part is too young to comprehend what people can criticize when I procrastinate. Parts are not insightful. They have one job and that’s to protect me. In this case it’s to keep me from doing something less than perfectly.

Until I realized that, nothing I did would overcome the procrastination. Fear is such a pervasive emotion. It’s like mold. It permeates every aspect of your life. But you don’t recognize it until the damage has been done.

Anyway, it’s been a long time since I’ve written about IFS and I thought this topic was a great way to reintroduce it.

If you’ve been interested in IFS, have you looked into it? If not, why not? Why are you procrastinating? You don’t have enough time? Well then, you’re not that interested, right? See how insidious it is.