Monday, October 24, 2011

Change the Station

So I was driving along today, happily and contentedly, when an old song came on the radio. It was a song that brought back some particularly painful memories, and as I listened, I felt myself reliving all of those old feelings. All of a sudden I was feeling sad, discouraged, bummed out, and in a matter of seconds my entire outlook and demeanor changed. My previously happy mood took a nose dive and I found myself almost beginning to cry right there in the car.

It was at that moment that I heard a little voice inside my head. The little voice said, "You know, you can change the station."

Change the station. Right! I didn't have to sit there feeling miserable listening to that stupid song, I had the power to change the station! The song and the feelings that it brought back did NOT have power over me, I had power over them and I didn't have to sit there and keep listening. (note to self: Duh!)

Armed with this newfound wisdom, I reached over, pressed a little button and the song was instantly replaced by a happy, upbeat, uplifting song, and my good mood returned. How about that!

And that got me thinking...how often do we NOT change the station in our lives? How many times do we get pulled down by the past, or find ourselves stuck in a rut, or feel hopeless that we can't change anything about our current situation? We think that we are powerless over our own lives, which, when you think about it, is absurd. All we have to do is change the station!

We can't expect anyone else to do it for us. It's up to us to choose to change what we don't like about our lives. Like those "friends" who let us down on a regular basis, or that co-worker who is constantly taking advantage of our good nature and work ethic, or those memories that send us spiraling downward instead of lifting us up - we don't have to get stuck in those anymore. We don't have to continue on in relationships that don't make us happy or feed our souls. We don't have to say "yes" to every single person's request of us. We are not stuck where we think we are, regardless of our circumstances.

More importantly though, I think we need to change the station when it comes to what we tell ourselves. There's that other little voice in our heads that tells us we're not good enough, or that we'll never get it all accomplished, or that it's pointless to even try because it's not going to work out anyway. It also reminds us that happiness means the other shoe will drop any minute, and that it's foolish to have high hopes and dreams for ourselves. Often times these words were spoken originally by someone else but we have made them our own, and often cling to them as the absolute truth. This particular station needs to be turned off completely, and be replaced by presets that applaud our successes, foster joy and optimism, and encourage us in our pursuits and endeavors. Let these be the ones we go to when we look in the mirror or talk to others or think about trying something new.

We don't need to be stuck listening to the same old songs anymore. We can just change the station. And do you know what happens when we do that? We find a whole bunch of new songs that we get to sing along to and enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. Lovelovelove this one, Rachel! Love. YOU.

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  2. Thanks for writing this and pointing out something we all forget sometimes. And thanks to Melissa for making sure I saw it!

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