the right summer attitude
/Because our minds and bodies don’t always match, aren’t always in the same place at the same time, it may be a good idea to check if both know it’s summer.
Feel those warm winds sweeping across your shoulders? It’s time to get the brain outside, too, and pump some air through the circuits.
Memorial Day has come, the clock is ticking, the sun is brighter. The moment is here to adopt the attitude that allows a looser, more relaxed approach to the daily grind.
This is a warning.
To you. To us. And okay, to me, still putting gloves in my pockets and deadlines on my calendar. Yes, it’s time to adopt the “let it go” mantra that gets us outside away from the desk, the kitchen, the endless chores. Maybe it should even be required by law.
Obviously, we need a proclamation. Here it is:
Dear People,
Life is filled with stuff we can’t control. We know this, we feel this, we even accept this while fighting against it.
Stuff is on one side. Let it go is on the other.
Sure, we still need to manage the stuff -- all the issues and problems -- but let’s fix what we can and let go of the rest. For now. In honor, in devotion, in respect for the summer that nature has bequeathed.
Walk lighter, believe things are okay enough, and accept these warm, sunny months are a well-planned, built-into-the-system, required, absolutely essential escape from the everyday to recover and rejuvenate.
Let it go. Let it be. Let it change. Let’s do it.
Love,
The Summer
My friend Elayne is into this. She carries around a “let it go” microphone modeled on the movie Frozen. She’s quite annoying with it, turning it on when people complain about a relationship issue, a work issue, a house issue. Not a huge acute thing perhaps, but some mournful repetitive refrain they’re not shaking -- a broken record, an endless loop, a leaking hose that keeps spouting, soaking everything around it.
Let it go. For a tiny while?
Studies find at least 80% of our thoughts are negative and repetitive. Day to day, it seems not much new happens in the ole noggin’, just that same naggin’ with no gaggin’ it.
Let’s stop a moment and do a quick inventory. What are those nagging thoughts? Same fears, regrets, frustrations, doubts? What self-defeating, self-deflating things do you say to yourself, even while the body is pretending to be loose and easy?
Here’s an example:
Before I leave on a summer journey, trying on shoes and modeling swimsuits in the mirror, I also start cleaning the house, checking for stale boxes of cereal and crumbs under the couch. It comforts me and gives me a sense of security from the fear that something terrible could happen.
Following some old advice, I’ve made a list of what those repetitive thoughts are, and it’s a long one: What if I get hurt while I’m away, who will I call? What if something happens back at the house, a tree falls, a roof caves? What if I come home exhausted, disappointed, more stressed than when I left? What if I stop reading the news and detach from the political divide, who will take my spot? What if Mars and Venus collide and the universe blows up?
It’s a list that could make a person stay home.
So, now what? For every negative, repetitive thought, it’s said, you must write down a positive one -- all the great things that could happen, that are truly more likely to happen.
When was the last time Mars and Venus collided, anyway?
Then, once that’s all written down, say these new thoughts to yourself whenever the noggin’ is a-naggin’. For example, “I could have a truly awesome, life-changing time!”
Replace the old thoughts. Practice. Let it go. Let it be. Let it change. Let’s do it.
Say yes to summer.
Can you? I can’t do it so easily either. But I did make the negative list and I did write the positives, because those experts say that writing things down helps to cement them in your mind. And sometimes the mind could use a bit of cement to hold it together.
Giving it the good old summer try.