Are You Really That Ornery, Or Is That Just A Habit?

Sometimes, Franki will get this look on her face and she’ll act out as if she’s really mad about something.  She would convince any movie director out there that she’s really mad.  But she’s not.  She’s playing a role; she’s acting it out, but she’s not feeling it; it’s a pretend game to her.

 How often do you pretend to be feeling something you’re not?  How often do you mask how you feel just because you think it’s inappropriate or wrong in some way?  And how often do you just respond as you always do, feeling like you always do, just because it’s what you do; it’s become a habit. 

Your girlfriend doesn’t call you, so you get mad.  You feel disrespected every time your spouse leaves the toilet seat up.  You feel irritated when your kid doesn’t clean up her room.  You feel judged whenever your mom speaks to you in that tone of voice.  You feel misunderstood because your dad still doesn’t understand you.  You feel overwhelmed as the emails in your inbox keep coming.  You feel powerless when you think the government isn’t doing its job the way you think it should.  You feel irritated because your significant other leaves her shoes in your way every single time.  You feel annoyed at the incompetent waiter because your eggs are served over-easy instead of hard-boiled.  It’s Monday, so you feel slightly depressed.  There’s traffic, so you feel vexed.  It’s raining, you feel blah.  You feel irate every time your dog barks at the moon.  You feel jealous when you see dude down the street driving yet another new car.  You feel insecure or inferior when you think she’s got something you want that you perceive you don’t have.  You feel injustice when you think about the cost of things you want to buy.    You feel lack when you spend money.  You feel pissed every time some bloke cuts you off in traffic.  You feel peeved every morning when you arrive at Starbucks for your cup o' joe and there's a long line.  You feel ornery when you think about what needs to get done.  You feel guilty because you’re working instead of being with your kid.  You feel resentment because your mama never loved you.  You hate going to work, because you don’t think you should have to work.  You feel unworthy because you’re not working.  You feel blame when your husband, wife, kid, employee, boss, neighbor, fella on the bus, or lady next to you does something you don’t like.  You feel ornery because you think there should be laws against that.  You feel frustrated every time your computer bungs up and slows down.  You just get downright cranky when your newspaper isn't where you last left it.  You feel all hot and bothered when someone has an opinion about what you're doing. 

Do any of these sound familiar?  Are there subjects, or conditions, or circumstances where you respond habitually? 

 

How many times in a day, a week, a month, a year, do you respond the way you do just because it’s familiar and it’s what you do?  And for how many days, weeks, months or years are you going to just keep doing it because you always have? 

I believe that most of our responses to life are habits; habits of thought, habits of vibration; habits.  We do what’s familiar, we do what we know, and we do what we’ve always done just because that’s what we do.  We don’t stop to feel what we’re feeling in the moment and often don’t entertain the idea that we could respond differently and therefore have different feeling responses. 

Pay attention to your responses over the next few days.  Notice if some of those responses are familiar to you.  Are you quite accustomed to this response and how it feels? Would you like to feel differently, or do you like feeling the way you do as you respond to this person, this thing, this condition?   

You are constantly evolving and nothing need be as it always has been just because that’s the way it’s been.  You can always make a different decision about how you want to feel and how you want to respond; and it begins now.  It begins now with the desire to do so, and it begins now by setting the energy in motion.  You can begin by thinking about how you would prefer to feel in said scenario, and take some time to imagine yourself feeling and being that way.  If you want to feel differently, you can’t keep blundering into the situation as it’s playing itself out and try to feel differently.  That’s usually too late, you’re too caught up in the moment.   Use your mind and connect with how you want to feel now, and pave the way in advance before you get caught up in the momentum of the moment. 

Habits of thought are not hard to break, but there are elements in the equation that assist in forming new habits: 

 

1)  The desire to feel good

2) Focus

3) Paying attention to how you feel

4) Connecting to how you would prefer to feel in advance of the scenario playing itself out

5)Practicing the new habit until it becomes the familiar one

 

We all have habits of feeling as we respond to our lives.  Decide today that you do have a choice and decide whether or not your familiar ways of responding are how you want to continue to respond.  You can find yourself transforming your approach to life by making that decision today.