Let Them All Fall Away

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the external messages that we receive as children, and how, even as adults, it is often extremely difficult to replace those messages with healthier ones; even when logically we believe the healthier ones to be true. What, doesn't everyone wake up in the middle of the night thinking of these things?

At any rate, here's an example from my own life that will illustrate what I mean. Last week, I was trying to find a vacation house for my family to stay in when we go away next month. If you know me, you know that it is pretty unusual for me to plan a trip with such short notice, but I've been consciously trying to add some spontaneity to my life, so I figured this was a good opportunity. Well, after three days of searching for the perfect home, it was starting to look like we were going to have to settle for something that we didn't really want, because all the good ones were taken. (Perhaps, the single readers out there can relate to that statement on a different level.) Now, my old thinking, the type I grew up with, would tell me that it was my own fault for planning so late, and that there was no way that I could have everything that I wanted. In other words, that scarcity was the ruling phenomenon, and that I would just have to deal with it. But, thankfully, I don't really believe that.

What I actually believe, and what turned out to be true, is that the right house was out there, just waiting for me to find it. That the decision had already been made on another plane, and that the Universe was patiently watching while I fumbled around toward the right path. This way of thinking relies on abundance and trust at it's core, and at a gut level, it feels so right. 

Of course, you could argue that if finding a vacation house is my biggest problem, I am so damn lucky. And I would agree. But I also think that these better thoughts could be applied to much bigger issues, even about life and death. Isn't this what Dave Matthews is saying when he asks, "What point could there be troubling, head down wondering what will become of me? Why concern we cannot see, but no reason to abandon it."

Indeed, so many of Dave's songs speak of living here and now, in the moment, because we really don't know what could happen in the next second. This is something I have always loved about DMB lyrics, but until now, I never really thought of how it could also apply to breaking free from old thought patterns. Imagine how powerful a human race we would be if we all lived as we saw fit. Sure, that might be a scary proposition for some, but I believe that deep down, somewhere in the basement of our psyches, each one of us contains the great light. So, if good thoughts fall like rain, let's open up our minds, and let the rain come pouring in.

Hayley Bauman, Psy.D.