Thursday, July 5, 2007

My Greatest Joy and Happiness as a Child

Recently I attended a presentation on "Creating Your Own Reality". It was very informative and I learned a great deal but what I found particularly enlightening were the questions that were listed on the presentation handout. I took several days to "be" with the questions, actually I'm still working through them. I like time to "be" with questions because it really gets me thinking and provides such clarity and enlightenment.

One question was about what brought you the greatest joy and happiness at different stages in your life. I loved this question because it got me thinking about my childhood and what brought me the greatest joy. Without a doubt the two biggest things for me were imagining my future and writing. It never occurred to me that the two could go together.

I suppose all children spend time imagining what they will be when they "grow up" and what their life will look like. I was incredibly curious about how I would look and act, where I would live and what I would do for a living, would I be married and have children, etc. I had so much fun letting my imagination soar. In my mind I could be, do, or have anything I wanted. I was still in that wonderful and tender place where I believed that all things were possible.

I also loved to write. Words would flow effortlessly from my mind to the page. All kinds of stories would come to me. I never questioned or doubted what I wrote I would just let it come. When I was seven I even started a family newspaper and would write a story about what was going on with each member of my family. It was so fun and my family was so encouraging and played right along with me. I was writing because it was fun, creative and easy. It was a glimpse of a future possibility for me.

Thinking about this question made me remember the first time someone criticized my writing and how I let that change me. I was still in elementary school but I was just starting to care about what people thought of me. I started to doubt myself and my writing. I started writing less frequently and became very critical of my own work. Writing wasn't fun anymore because I cared too much about what people thought. Soon I stopped writing completely. I didn't stop imagining but where I used to see unlimited possibilities I now saw doubt and limitation. I became very shy and self-conscious as I let other people start dictating what was appropriate for me and what my talent was. That's when life stopped being fun.

It's interesting that now as an adult I have gone back to what brought me the greatest joy as a child - writing and imagining my future. I never intended to go back to writing but through my interest and exploration of the Law of Attraction I have begun to reacquaint myself with that wonderful and tender place where all things are possible. I can't think of any other place I'd rather be!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Lori,

Your mention of what you did as a child and the first time someone criticized your "work" caused me to recall something I had not thought of for some time that I feel the same way about. As a child I was always drawing and coloring things even though I didn't show any signs of being an art prodigy. I did, however, gain a lot of satisfaction out of it even though I recall being criticized early on by a teacher. Interestingly, I developed a thought process that said nothing short of perfection was good enough and this kept me from pursuing anything I couldn't completely control! HMMMM, so now I wondering if I should try taking up that drawing (or painting or some such) again....

Clyde

Lori Archibald said...

Clyde,

Yes, absolutely you should take it up again. Isn't it funny how much control we end up giving people over our lives.

I tell you my life has really changed since I started paying attention to my feelings. I realized that our emotions are communication from God. When we do things that bring forth a good feeling we are aligned with God.

Once I really got that then I started doing things because of the feeling it brought me and that's when life really started getting fun and opportunities started to open for me.

I wish the same for you!

Lori