Changing Thoughts

I got caught in a rain & lightening storm last night - IN ARIZONA!

Being someone who lives in the midwest, I had NO idea there were storms like this in AZ. I thought it didn't rain much at all in the desert!? Just when I thought I knew something...I find a fault in my thinking...

I was then told by my colleage (who lives in AZ),"Oh, no...we have a monsoon season."

My idea of Arizona has nothing to with monsoons?!?!

That evening, with lightening cracking and illuminating the mountains, I was watching the weather report to see the storms on the radar. I saw a big, red blotch with little lightening bolt symbols west of where I was staying. "Oh geez," I thought to myself, "we're going to get pounded again!"

WRONG! Because the weather patterns move from west to east in Minnesota, I automatically assumed the weather would move similarly in AZ.

In Arizona, the weather patterns move from east to west. The storms on the radar that were west of us were traveling west and were the very storms that we had already pounded us.

Just when I thought I knew something...it changed!

But what, really, was the thing that changed?

I think this kind of thing happens to us all the time. We have a scheme of things in mind -- about our jobs, our managers/leaders, our families, our spouses. If they would just fit into our scheme of things, we could continue thinking about them in the way we already do. And when they don't fit into our idea of them, we think THEY changed.

Sometimes we take this "change" well. We're able to be flexible, and we're able to endure the 'pain' of these new thoughts. (and yes, there really is pain involved...I'll leave that topic for another post).

Oftentimes, however, we dig our heels in to try finding SOME WAY to keep our thoughts the way they are. "No, my family really IS judgemental." "No, my spouse really IS incapable of paying me the attention I want. "

In reality, by setting aside our "scheme of things" for even a moment, we can let in another way of looking at things. This can change the way we think, the way we see things, and perhaps even the way we put together our scheme of things. i.e. By setting aside my Minnesota scheme of things I could think in a new and different way about being in Arizona.

So give it a try! Set it aside your thoughts of "It should be different!" - even for a moment - and see what happens with your thinking... you never know what could change!