Article by
KAYSOON KHOO
How many times have you found yourself in a situation you dislike but which persists in intensifying nevertheless? The more you hate it, the worse it gets. At such times you feel as if there is a perverse force working against you.
In actual fact, there is. YOU are generating that force. When you think of that thing you dislike, you give it energy. Your dislike works up your emotions. You feel irritated or angry. The stronger your reaction, the more energy you project into your environment.
Imagine you're cleaning the house. You keep on telling yourself it's a chore you positively hate. You'd rather be outdoors jogging. You resent having to do what you're doing.
Keep up that mindset and in no time the situation will set your teeth on edge and spiral into something beyond your control. You'll either turn the job into a mess or you won't get to finish it all.
Things will happen to hamper what you're doing. The phone will ring incessantly. Someone will drop in and deprive you of your precious time. Accidents will happen. The hoover will decide to stop functioning. You'll accidentally drop a whole stack of porcelain dishes and give yourself more work. One thing after another will crop up to give you additional misery.
You have to back up and tone down. Regard the job before you with different eyes. Don't think of it as cleaning the house. Think of it as something you're doing for your own home, your favourite corner of the world. Compare what you're doing with something infinitely more irksome -- like hoeing the fields in the hot sun.
And whistle while you work. Or put on some music. Remember what Mary Poppins said about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down? Scoop some sugar into your mind and taste a different experience.
