A Simple Way to Lift Your Spirits

[Guest guest]

From Dr. Ben Kim’s webpage http://www.drbenkim.com/simple-way-lift-your-spirits.htm

 

A Simple Way to Lift Your

Spirits

Posted By Dr. Ben Kim on Mar 09, 2010

The

other day, I found myself feeling unusually uptight. I couldn't quite put a

finger on why I felt like busting up some dry wall. I just felt like I was off,

like my mind was a pyramid standing upside down trying to balance its point on

a right-side-up pyramid.

On my way home, I stopped off at a

bank to make a deposit. But I went to a branch that I don't usually go to, and

the teller spent what felt like a few minutes scrolling through my history of

transactions, trying to size up the possibility that I was attempting to

deposit a fraudulent check.

Of course, it didn't help that I

was anxious to shake the day off my shoulders, and that I was eager to get home

to play with our boys. And then the teller printed off what appeared to be a

list of previous transactions from my account and disappeared into a back

office.

Another few minutes later, a set

of eyes peered around the doorway of the back office and gave me a quick once

over, only to disappear for another couple of minutes, though from my vantage

point, I could see that " they " had pulled up my account on their

monitor and were scrolling again.

By the time the teller came back

with her manager in tow, let's just say that I wasn't feeling emotionally

balanced. Struggling to contain my frustration and general feeling of

uneasiness, I asked, " What's going on? " in a flat tone.

They patiently explained that

because they weren't used to seeing me at their branch, they had to check my

account to make sure that they didn't have to put a hold on my funds. They also

kindly apologized for the wait time, and said that they would be sure to

recognize me the next time and avoid a similar delay.

But I felt incapable of playing

nice. I told them I would just know better next time and go to my home branch,

and though I'm guessing that I managed to blurt this out in a semi-conciliatory

tone, unless they were medicated with emotion-numbing drugs, I'm sure that they

could feel the heavy, negative force that I was emitting.

And as is usually the case when I

behave badly, just a second or two after the interaction was over and I was on

my way out to my car, I felt like the world's biggest jerk.

Why did I have to let such petty

anger and impatience boil up in me? I knew going in that I was having a tough

day, so why wasn't I able to check my negativity at the door and just be

patient and kind with a teller who was simply trying to do her job, and who

also happened to be quite nice about the delay?

I stewed in my car trying to

figure out why I was feeling so darn prickly, and more importantly, what I

could do to snap out of it.

Then I remembered: in the past, I

was always able to rely on showing unexpected generosity and thoughtfulness as

a way of lifting my spirits.

And it just so happened that a

couple of days earlier, we received a call from a lady named Lilli at our

public library who had found our youngest son's community center ID card, and

in recognizing his picture on the card, gave us a call at home to let us know

that she had found it.

So I drove straight to a local tea

shop, picked up a gift card, and dropped it off for Lilli at the library on my

way home.

Almost instantly, I felt healed.

Amazing, right?

I don't even remember what it was

that had me on edge that day. I couldn't tell you if it was a client being

unkind to me, or a disagreement that I had with a family member. Whatever it

was, all it took for me to shed my toxic energy was doing something nice for

someone.

I'm so glad that I am back in

touch with this kind of magic that we can create at any time to bring peace

into our lives. What a great tool to avoid getting sucked into a seemingly

inescapable vortex of bad energy.

Bestowing an unexpected act of

thoughtfulness and/or generosity on another doesn't require a thick wallet. Not

at all.

I remember back when I was a

chiropractic student in the suburbs of Chicago, in paying my toll fee on a

highway, I would sometimes pay double and let the attendant know that I was

also paying for the next person to come through. Even without knowing who I was

giving a nice surprise to, that extra 40 cents was a priceless gift to myself.

I think it's pretty clear that we

need each other to get through life. We need to feel connected, useful,

appreciated. So it makes sense to me that generating good energy through small

surprises can change our momentum for the better, no matter how tough a day or

week or month or year or string of years we've had.

I was going to write about hiatal

hernias during my writing window today, but the voice in my head told me to

write about this instead. And I have to say that I'm feeling really good about

sharing these thoughts. So good that I feel inspired to get a tea at some drive

through window on the way home tonight just so that I can pay for the person

behind me and give whoever it is a little boost in faith. Faith in humanity, I

mean.

If you have a favorite way of

surprising a loved one or a stranger with a thoughtful act or gift, please

consider sharing it via the comments or facebook connect sections below. The

more ideas we have in our pockets, the better, right? Thanks for reading.