Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Step In The Right Direction

Lighten up… and suddenly you are unencumbered by your own thoughts.

Since I don’t watch the news, I don’t “complain” about not being abreast of the latest issues, so, please bare with me if this comes in as old news to any of you. Yesterday at the gym, while pumping away on the elliptical machine – which of course is positioned directly in front of a large-screen TV – I caught a segment on a morning news show regarding a new “bracelet”. We have so many now, all to show our support for our favorite causes: Pink for breast cancer, Green for saving the earth, Blue to support the tsunami relief, to name a few, and now Purple to be worn and used as a tool to help us stop our complaining and support a “complaint-free world”.

Conceived of by Reverend Will Bowen, Pastor of Christ Church Unity in Kansas City, the bracelet was originally designed to get his churchgoers to stop complaining. Every time you catch yourself complaining, you are to change the bracelet to your other wrist. Once you have gone 21 consecutive days (starting from scratch every time you complain) you receive a certificate of happiness. Turns out they can’t fulfill the orders for these wristbands fast enough. Calls are coming in not from just the U.S., but from around the globe: Australia, South Africa, Russia, as well as from troops posted in Iraq.

The thing that strikes me about all this is it seems more and more people are looking deeper and taking the initiative to create a better world by taking steps towards their own self-awareness. Finding happiness and changing the world starts by changing perspective, and that comes from within (not from a piece of paper or a band of rubber, not really). But, perhaps we are beginning to realize that if we continue to facilitate negative thought patterns by habitually and mindlessly voicing our complaints, we continue to perpetuate a world of negativity and pessimism. Like attracts like. We can re-direct this flow, but first we have to become aware - so why not have a tool that helps? By recognizing the energy within our thoughts, we can tell the difference between a complaint and mere observation and decide how we want it to be. At least then if we continue to complain, we will be doing so consciously.

It’s not to say, once we obtain our “certified happiness” that we will never have another negative thought. We remind ourselves we are human, each at a different point on the path doing the best we can, and give ourselves a pat on the back for paying attention and stepping up to do the work it takes!

[More on Complaint-Free World bracelets at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17362505/]

Happy trails!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sat Nam, LG! Boy are we on the same wavelength. Today was the first day that I have tried to keep the complaining in check. It's amazing how frequently the petty complaints come to the surface. I agree that we need less negativity in our lives and not complaining, or complaining less, will be a small step towards letting the positive energy flow.
Thanks for your insight!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I orderd my bracelets with a significant donation more than four months ago...but you won't hear me complaining that they have not arrived. I assume it means tons of people are ordering...yea!

Lady Guru said...

yes, tons of people - so, we all complain, to some degree, don't we? and, yes, those petty complaints are the quickest to rise, aren't they? i think it stems from the fact that we always expect things to be perfect. perhaps, if we all exercise a little "non-attachment" we'll have less to complain about...