{"id":231,"date":"2016-01-26T20:56:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T02:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/?p=231"},"modified":"2018-06-15T23:12:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T04:12:55","slug":"craziest-times-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"In The Craziest Of Times, Be Present."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FullSizeRender\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Picture this:<\/p>\n

You are\u00a0alone in the woods and are\u00a0running away from a big, mean, and hungry bear. In the exhausting and terrifying moments that you’re fearing for your life,\u00a0you find a bridge with a tall gate that you think you’d be able to squeeze through. Thankfully, you make it through the gate and escape the terror of the hungry bear behind you. Once through the gate and looking forward\u00a0while trying to catch your breath, you notice that the other side of the bridge has broken off and the falling pieces\u00a0 are ever-so-slowly creeping towards you. Looking below, you realize you’re too high up to jump off the bridge and land safely on the rocky terrain hundreds of feet below you.\u00a0 Between the angry bear attempting to break through\u00a0the gate, and the fate of falling from the cliff you reside on, you’re stuck and panicked.
\nDuring your state of terror, you notice hanging off the side of the\u00a0bridge the most beautiful, colorful, and lively flower you’ve ever seen. Its beauty is memorizing, and you can’t help but go towards the flower and feel happy in its presence. You sit next to and admire\u00a0\u00a0the flower, feeling relaxed\u00a0when smelling its aroma and feeling comforted when touching\u00a0its silky petals. In that moment<\/strong>, all is good with the world and you are at peace.<\/p>\n

…Do you see where I am going with this?<\/p>\n

Sometimes, all that we can do\u00a0 is focus on the present moment. Sometimes, everything surrounding us is scary, chaotic, negative, hurtful…And these situations\u00a0may sometimes be\u00a0out of our control. How can we be more present in those situations, in the exact moment, and focus on what is in our control? How can we find the good, and focus on the good when we are in an environment that is anything but peaceful? There is always something we can focus on that is good<\/em>. In any situation, we have the ability to know and understand that things can get better. In any moment, we can choose to surround ourselves with positive thoughts. We may not be able to choose what is happening around us or to us, but we can choose where our focus lies and how we respond. Sometimes, the best way to react is to focus on\u00a0the beauty\u00a0right in front of us, what makes us smile, and how lucky we are in the present moment.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0scary, chaotic, negative and hurtful\u00a0moments…find the\u00a0flower.<\/p>\n

Think positive, be positive, and positive things will happen.<\/em><\/p>\n

-keep shining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture this: You are\u00a0alone in the woods and are\u00a0running away from a big, mean, and hungry bear. In the exhausting and terrifying moments that you’re fearing for your life,\u00a0you find a bridge with a tall gate that you think you’d be able to squeeze through. Thankfully, you make it through the gate and escape the terror of the hungry bear behind you. Once through the gate and looking forward\u00a0while trying to catch your breath, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[342],"tags":[37,127,128,124,44,105,126,115,123,65,66,67,125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swsecrets.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}