Literally throwing out the garbage.

After talking to a few friends today, I have to share that not only is it June 19th, 2011- Father's Day but also my birthday, my nephews birthday and its my nieces anniversary . (which happens every 4 yrs, in which we all get to share one extra special day.)
I have seen other postings asking what do you think of when you speak your dads name. " my wish for my Dad is _____."

My response is that "I wish my dad was still around to see and meet his grand kids, and great grand kids."
You see my Dad passed away in the early 80's and I had not seen him since I was around 3 yrs old, so my wish is, for those of you who have a dad that is still around, is for you to be thankful he is around, to let them know in some small fashion that you love them and that you forgive them, and for us kids to remember, that daddy's are not always right. They are human after all.

After they are gone, well all the "Could haves, should haves" are no longer available. As many can testify who have lost their father's. So making any amends now would do you both a lot of good.

The realization that they are still caring around some negativity about their past is what has prompted this posting. I have had a lot of bad things happen to me, and the one thing I refuse to do is let it influence my life any longer than I have to. I won't play the victim card as I have seen and heard many people do.
I am a survivor, I refuse to let those who have hurt me to have that much control over my life.
For if they control my life than I am the victim, they make me afraid to live, to go outside, to be a part of the community, to interact with others, always afraid of what people may see or think about me. And I just can not let that happen anymore. So when the negative things start cropping up on a daily basis, this is what I have to do personally.

Now how to literally throw out the garbage:

The one thing I have found to help me get through the rough patches is to meditate. And not just any type of meditation.

I close my eyes, relax (usually propped up against the couch comfortably) to a state of almost being asleep.

Picturing myself at the top of a stair case, there are 10 steps.
As I walk down the steps I count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Once I hit the last step, I look around, I see a meadow with wild flowers, and in the distance I hear a creek, bubbling along.

I begin walking out into the meadow stopping to smell a lovely purple or yellow or blue flower. Taking a deep breath as I do.

I then find a spot and sit down. Letting the warm sun move across me, as I think about the problems I am having.

If it has to do with something someone has done wrong to me or my family or a very close friend, I whisper the name of the person who has hurt them/ me deeply and say.. " I forgive you for, hitting, hurting those that I love." Or what ever the wrong doing is. And I keep saying it until I can smile inside.

Then I get up and walk back to the stair case, walking back up the stairs, counting the stairs as I go up. I move to the center of the room and I see all the negative thoughts sitting about.

Grinning or smirking, I grab a large garbage bag and I begin to fill it up. Once all the negative thoughts are in the bag, I take it out to the curb, of course it happens to be trash pick up day, and I gladly throw the bag into the back of the garbage truck. therefore throwing out all the negative garbage and leaving my mind to focus on more positive things.


How do you get rid of the bad thoughts and feelings?