My wife and I am our 5 month old twin babies are in Venezuela visiting my wife’s family and putting togther the papers required for my wife’s spousal visa. It could take a month to put the papers together and another 6 months to get the Visa. We are staying at my wife’s sisters house on a mattress on our floor with our babies. My wife’s sister and husband are incredibly busy and stressed out, we are in the middle of their life, we have no other option. I can’t work here, Venezuela is crumbling under Chavez. I have a job lined up in Australia, we just need to get there. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaaaaah.
Stop.
This afternoon I felt about as negative as I ever could. My wife too. We love each other so much but have been feeling under so much stress about our situation and the question “What are we going to do” that we have been a bit disconnected.
So at some stage today, we were driving along at I saw a beautiful plaza. I said to my wife “Gee love, isn’t that a beautiful plaza”.
I then realized that I saw something I liked. I thought “What if I just focus on the things I like about Venezuela and our situation? Wouldn’t that be more constructive?
Then I thought, ok whenever a negative thought comes up, I am just going to chant one of my favourite mantras. So I started chanting the Gayatri Mantra, then later Om Namaha Shivaya then Sede Campalete etc. My wife started too.
A few hours later I turned to my wife and said “I feel great now”. She replied “So do I!!”. Funny that.
I had been feeling so negative and more stressed than any time I can remember. Now I was feeling great.
I remembered a concept that Randolph Stone the founder of Polarity Therapy covered in one of his books. The concept of the “Diamond Soul”. The pressures of life are what create the diamond soul. For the creation of diamonds, the pressure is immense.
I related that to the stress we were under, our living situation, not wanting to be in Venezuela, trying to get to Australia.
I thought, I can let myself be crushed by this stress or I can allow the pressure to catapult me into positivity. I can become a diamond.
Today I chose the latter! Tomorrow is Round 2!
I believe mantra chanting is a great tool. When the negatives come, just start chanting. When I was a little boy, I used to ridicule the Hare Krishnas like nearly everyone else in Australia. Now I know, those Hares, they are onto something HUGE: Natural Highs from chanting.
Chant and be happy.
Don’t worry be happy.
Happy happy happy happy happy.
Say that 100 times and see what happens.
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