Head Space

New resolutions...seeing I have been so slack and have not followed Alain de Botton's advice and risen at 4am to write and receive my super clever ideas which come to anyone at that hideous hour I am going to trick myself and pretend to be starting a new year. I know it is not THE NEW YEAR...but it could be if only I could change my thinking. I've already been there once...in my memoir KIN DEEP...'I cannot change anything about my past but can change the way I see it.'
Of course this idea is not new. It has always been known that a lack of control of a situation, a lack of options to change things, can result in negative thinking. But to change the negative response one can take back control and realise that the thoughts in one's head space are no one else's but your own. It is possible to change how one thinks and reacts by simply controlling and filtering the thoughts that enter one's mind. negative thoughts out! Unacceptable! Positive thoughts in! Yes, only positive thoughts allowed.
Did I say simply? Well it isn't so. Like all beneficial acts it takes practise to alter age-old habits. By a repetitive effort the brain can change and develop and store new ways of going about things. But, one needs to practise the change every day.
We all have a choice each morning what to make of our day and the challenges we are facing. Events do not cause our life's miseries it is how we choose to react to them that is the cause. So where does it leave me and the white ants eating my timber floor of my house entrance? Or the moisture covering a wall and floor in my study in the recent rain storms? Simple, call Pest Control, move the computer and books from the wet area to a dry corner of the room, empty three book shelves in the process, only to reload them later and ring the gutter expert, continuously. He doesn't seem to want to come...and I don't blame him. Maybe he should change his thinking?

Talking of head space...I watched Q&A and watched each panel member's reaction not only to the questions posed but to each other. I couldn't help but be amused by Professor Brian Schmidt's astonishment at some of the outlandish and impulsive behaviours of some. While I respect and admire Professor Schmidt's love of Physics his almost horrified look stimulated me to wish I could have been in a position to pose the question I have heard answered by other scientists before.....all scientists need to have an Aspergher/Autism proponent in their personality make-up to be effective and successful scientists. Would Professor Schmidt agree? I thought I saw evidence of both in his reaction to some of the outbursts. You wonder why it is important to me? Because I live with a scientist and it has taken me years to understand his personality.