| 5:37am Two glowing beady little eyes stared at me in the darkness. I hit the brakes and looked again. “Oh jeez. Rocky!”, I yelled. “You shared the $#!+ outta me!” Our (well fed) neighborhood racoon shrugged his shoulders (I swear he did!), turned back around and sauntered across the street. I finished parking the car, grabbed my water bottle and phone and found my key for the side door to our apartment building. In the pitch black of early morning, the door slowly creaked open and in between the half a second of opening the door and the automatic light turning on, I heard a “HHHHEEEEECCCHHHH”. I screamed like a little girl and jumped back away from the door. What went through my mind was an image of Rocky’s wife behind the door with fangs and claws out ready to strike because I had scared her while she was going to town on our garbage. Then the automatic light turned on… …to reveal a dry leaf caught under the door scrapping across the concrete. So yeah. That happened. Lessons from Rocky It’s a great example of how what we feed our brain affects our view of the world. If Rocky hadn’t just made my heart jump, I would have never thought that Rochelle was hiding behind the door ready to attack. If you can’t get enough real crime documentaries, I bet you have an irrational fear of serial killers. If you religiously watch the news, I bet you have an irrational fear of the world ending. If you obsess over financial news, I KNOW you have an irrational fear of the market and economy crashing. I even bet if you read about tiger attacks in the Serengeti everyday, you’d have an irrational fear of getting mauled while walking your dog. Watch what you eat Point being, watch what you feed your brain. A steady diet of fear and negativity will manifest a perspective (and then a life) of fear and negativity. |
