Lessons from the Heat Pump Saga

“Everyone is handed adversity in life. No one’s journey is easy. It’s how they handle it that makes people unique.” ~ Kevin Conroy

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.” ~ Carl Jung

“The more you do stuff, the better you get at dealing with how you still fail at it a lot of the time.” ~ John Mulaney

It’s most likely happened to you, those times when the refrigerator or stove gives out just when a house full of people are coming for dinner, or your car breaks down on a trip. Even though they are small annoyances, they drive us batty. We recently had just such a small, and expensive annoyance. Our heat pump, which is both our heating and cooling system, blew the motor two weeks ago. Admittedly it is old for a machine. We had some minor repair done to it during the winter, signed up for the maintenance program and took a sigh of relief. But the company never called to do the spring maintenance and didn’t returned our phone call to ask when they would come. Then the motor blew on the unit. Fortunately the issue with the old company was resolved, but that meant starting over again with a new company.

I won’t relate the whole boring story. Let’s just say that after four repair visits and more money spent than we wanted, I learned something important. It’s how we handle the little annoying events in our lives that help us identify areas in our thinking and feeling that can be improved.

I’m not proud to say, sometimes when tiresome little things happen, I get upset. And being an observer of human nature, I wonder why I let those little things get to me. I’ve been thinking about that a great deal these last two weeks.

Like the quote by Carl Jung above suggests, I’ve spent a lifetime examining my dark side and it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve felt less haunted. Most of the time now, I’m happy. So why let something so small get to me. It may have to do with the fact that for most of the summer, I’ve been doing some reprograming of my thought and emotional patterns.

A few years ago I came across articles, books and interviews about the exciting advances in brain research. Contrary to what doctors and brain researchers thought previously, our brains are elastic rather than becoming set once we reach a certain age. This “neuroplasticity” allows us to change the neural pathways in our brains throughout our lives. When I read The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D, I was convinced that I could rid myself of ways of thinking that still held me back.

In my search for a program to fit my needs, I discovered people like John Asseraf, Drs. Daniel Amen, David Krueger and Joe Dispenza. Their work gave me the tools I needed to rid myself of old limiting patterns of thought so I could be free to enjoy success when I published my books. In the spring I began a meditation program with Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of the book and meditation series, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. And that brings me back to my reactions to each new little setback with the heat pump repair.

When anyone decides to create new thought patterns, part of the work is to recognize the old ones we’ve held onto for so long. Most of what we think is automatic, like programs running in the background on our computers. We’re completely unaware of them, unless we take the time to do some deep self-examination. It takes diligence and questioning why we’re thinking and feeling the way we are in any given situation to make the necessary changes. That’s difficult because most of the emotions we feel are triggered by learned subconscious responses, and unraveling those takes dedication.

That was a great deal of technical jargon to get to my point. What I’ve learned from these past two weeks is that my decision to change my thinking is working, because as soon as I got upset about the heat pump, I was conscious that I had more old thought patterns which need to be disconnected. Just observing those patterns helps me replace them with the new happier ones I’m creating. I’m grateful for this new knowledge and even though it may take me a long time, I will continue to work toward a happier more successful life.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments. Feel free to share these posts with your friends.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2016