Don't be the drowing man

This post is going a bit off course, but for me, this is all related to my happiness journey.  Happiness is not one thing, there are multiple aspects of it and I keep working on it a bit here and a bit there and I am making steady progress and I am certainly in a better place than I was in January of this year.  w00t!  GO ME!

I have mostly been writing about my weightloss and health journey because that has been a HUGE component of my journey to happiness.  And as I am reflecting on how far I have come and how close the end of the year is to me I realized that I need to work on my faith and spiritual life. I feel like I am on the right track with weightloss and part of that progress has helped my mental state but I am still experiencing more fear and anxiety than I would like because I know that with God I don't need to fear.  Alas I am human so I will fear but I can do something more to curb it, I don't want to be that drowning man.

I think we all have heard the story of the drowning man at some point I have heard it most often during Mass if you are not familiar with the story here it is.

The Story of a Drowning Man

This is the story of a drowning man.  As the man is drowning, he has no fear. Why? Well, this drowning man is very religious. “God will save me!” he says.

A man in a canoe comes by and offers the drowning man a life jacket. He says, “No thanks. God will save me!”

Then, a helicopter comes overhead. The crew throws a ladder down to help save the drowning man, but again the man says, “No thanks. God will save me!”

Finally, a person swims out to the drowning man to save him and the man says, “Climb on my back. I will swim you to shore.”
Of course, the drowning man still refuses and says, “No thanks. God will save me!”

And so, the man that had come to save the drowning man returned to shore. Sadly, the drowning man did drown. He went to heaven where he sees God.  He says to God, “I prayed every day and was a very religious man. I did everything the prayer books told me to do, so I have to ask you, why did you let me drown?”

Then God replied, “I sent a canoe, a helicopter and a man to bring you to shore and you refused their help!”

I do love that story and it was actually part of my inspiration to really get serious about my health and weight loss journey.  I knew that if I didn't make changes I would be meeting God before I wanted to (and I still may) but I had the power to do something and God was sending me my own version of the life jacket, helicopter, and swimmer.  I had already ignored the lifejacket but I feel like I was able to get over myself and take the helicopter.  That helicopter being my new doctor and her recommendation of counting calories and using an app.

The thing is that God has a lot of lifejackets, helicopters, and swimmers to send our way, we just have to recognize them and accept help.   So I accepted the helicopter once, I can do it again.  I can do more to alleviate my stress and anxiety and that is to give it to God.  I know he has a plan for me and it is good, I just need to let go and trust.  How do I rebuild my trust and accept that my life is good and I will not drown?  I will try to attack it in a similar manner that I did with my health journey, I want to try to incorporate a daily devotional or meditation into my life so I found a few apps to try.   I also created a list of things that I am grateful for and will strive to look at it at least once a day to help me focus on the positive.

As I mentioned to Mr. Padawan I used to always look at the positive and I have drifted to looking at the negative and I am starting to make the shift back to the positive.  I need to do more and make it habit again, and change my perspective not to ignore the negative but simply not dwell on it.  I need to acknowledge the bad but then find the good and walk towards that.  A practical example:

My back had been achy and on the second day when I would have expected it to be all better, it still ached a bit but not as much as the day before.  I was simply focusing on the fact that it still ached when instead I should have been focusing on the fact that I was feeling better.

So here I go, I will start looking for the positive and living a more full spiritual life, I even have a mantra thanks to Sheryl Crow. 

It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got