Hi bloggers! Hope everyone is having a won-differous day....or if that isn't the case, at least everyone is coping with the 'portions on their plates' of life.
Goms was thinking how so many people deem themselves to be 'original' in so many ways. The way they dress, the politics they have, their religious beliefs, etc. But in reality, we have been conditioned to be who we are and mostly become just copies of other people's ideas of what is in or what we should think, or how we should act.
Our behavior is the product of time and repetition. Take food for example. We have cravings and we don't really know where they come from. But if you want to change your cravings, for reasons of maintaing a healthier body, or you want to stop your craving for alcohol or drugs if they are a problem for you....then you must 'switch' your thought processes to rise above those cravings.
Gommy remembers being a little girl in Sunday School and afterwards the ladies always served the kids Kool-Aid and cookies. Now in Gommys' memory, that was the epitome' of a 5-Star meal at an expensive restaurant. To this day, Goms can't reproduce that taste no matter how hard I try. Goms can also remember chewing bubble-gum and drinking a bottled coke at the same time and getting that same wonderful taste sensation. Maybe it was because as children, we have zillions of taste buds and by the time we get on in age, they die off???? Oh well, the point I'm 'trying' to make is that the brain is conditioned to want that same experience that made us feel the way we did with the very 'first' taste of something. If we could just switch the thought process each time we want to dig into that jug of ice-cream and tell our brain that it is only the very first taste that is all that and a bag of chips! And then stop there.....Poof.....all those calories or the alcohol we were going to have or the drug of choice we should never do anyway, will lose it's allure.
But back to the being original or a carbon copy (geesh, that just shows us.....they don't even make CARBON copies any longer.....), being original has to be unconditioned. Think of when someone says they love you 'unconditionally'....what are they saying? They are saying that traditional love can change quickly into jealousy, boredom, or at the worst part of love.......betrayal. When we love 'unconditionally' we become aware of the person we love for who they are and not the trappings of the outside of the person and discover the inside (or the character or the deeper side of the person). We may know they have flaws, but we choose to overlook the flaws and love them unconditionally. We know that unconditional love exists....God fulfilled that promise for us. And in the end, what we all want in reality is to love unconditionally and to BE loved the same way.
Our politics and our religion are other examples of how we have been conditioned to believe. To be original, we must always have a healthy doubt about things and search out the right answers for ourselves. Gommy's religion is that I was raised a 'visitor'. Meaning I went to several different churches and even a Synagogue or two while growing up. And my parents politics were that they voted for whomever they felt would do the better job. Not because they were of the X, Y or Z party. Sooooo, it is easier for Goms to have a healthy doubt than for people who were raised in a dogmatic household where it was black OR white and no questions were asked about the validity of the household beliefs.
So, Goms advice for today is to take a softer approach to what you focus your attention on. Give yourself a break and realize that if you make a mistake, don't dwell on the 'sad story' of it and just move on.....when you eat a piece of cake....stop with the first bite.....enjoy the taste of it and tell yourself that eating the rest of the cake will just make you feel bad later on and you won't enjoy the rest of it anyway. Or don't take the first drink or whatever it is that is bad for you and that you don't want to continue with in your life, and picture the ending outcome of that poor decision.
Be originals boys and girls. Come up with your own thoughts about who you want to be, what you want to do and how you live your lives. If you are just going with the masses, you are NOT an original....you are a poor copy of other people and not being true to yourself. Goms is pulling for you....Hugs & Mush, Gommy
