I woke up this morning and realized that it was the beginning of another 6-day cycle.

I woke up this morning and was rooted to the bed after remembering that this was the day that starts the whole thing over again.

I love my job…but the constancy of it all brought me down.

For a moment, the constancy of it paralyzed me.  I didn’t want to move. I wanted to stay in bed and ponder my “fate”.  I knew what it all meant and expected nothing but more of the same.

In my mind, “more of the same” was a bad thing… for a moment.

And then I realized that I was awake again.

I was awake and my expectations were the only thing that had any bearing on what this day could bring.

It was time to bust out my inner Pollyanna and be the “leaf on the wind” I was born to be.

It’s funny how a quick turnaround in attitude can affect my physical being.  Up until the time I rallied, I was dead to the world…by choice.

I knew that this day had the potential to be the worst day I’d ever had….or at least, a magnificently mediocre one.

Of course, this is a pretty normal reaction when somebody first wakes up.  I guess that it’s normal to rue “not dreaming” anymore…it’s normal to have a hard time making the transition from limitless possibility to earth-bound reality. It’s normal to wake up blurry-eyed and confused.

I’m always glad when it’s a fast transition….and when I don’t stay stuck in the bad expectation zone.

I guess that I did title this blog “the physiology…” so I better talk about that a little.

So many of the books I’ve read mention that one of the techniques of achieving a positive outcome is to act “as if”…to act like the positive outcome is already achieved and your physiology will follow the mental process.

Your physiology…how you feel physically…is controlled by your emotions.  That’s a pretty heavy thought…it’s kind of a drag to take responsibility for that sometimes…but I think it’s true.

How we respond to the events around us is the only real power we have in any situation.

It’s all we really have control over.  We don’t control the weather.  We certainly don’t control other people. There isn’t much that we have any control over…except our perceptions of what we think our world is all about.

I woke up this morning and for a moment I was lost.

I wasn’t in pain…I’d had a nice nights sleep…I should have been feeling good about things…but for a moment, I was caught up in some marginally negative thoughts.  I was convinced that I was still on the treadmill….and I could picture a brighter world on the other…unreachable…side of the fence.

Then, somehow, I rallied.  It was an instantaneous combustion of positive energy at 4:57 in the morning…and like a phoenix, I rose from the ashes of my negative self talk and was reborn…ready to face the day again.

Of course, it could have been the coffee that helped me arrive at that renewed paradigm, too.

It is a blessing that I can say that “the constancy” of my job is a hard thing.  That’s a good thing these days.  It’s good to be able to expect more of the same when that’s what’s paying the bills.

I read that the acronym for FEAR is “False Expectations Appearing Real”. 

That’s so great. What haven’t I destroyed with worry and doubt?  What good things have I missed because I was afraid to disturb the “constancy”…no matter how unsatisfying “more of the same” can seem?

I guess that until the piano, like in all those old cartoons, drops on my head…I’ll work at expecting the best this world has to offer.

What other positive option do I have?

image from here