One of the challenges with kicking my busy-ness addiction is that I sometimes feel I am floundering around aimlessly. Somehow my subconscious equates that lack of busyness with being sick or depressed or something badly out of whack! And so, waking up this morning I found all sorts of gloomy images and memories floating to the surface and for a while I didn’t fight them.  But then a memory of something I heard in a talk I listened to last night, about the subconscious not being able to tell the difference between imaginings, memories, and real events taking place in the present. This memory reminded me of a story I read years ago about a woman who broke her leg and was laid up for several months. She had always wanted to play golf and so she spent her time practicing in her imagination, and when her cast was off she entered a golf tournament and won! I have also read that many athletes practice this way as well, and find it’s nearly as effective as the real thing!

This also triggered a memory about the work done at the HeartMath Institute where they did immune system studies and found that watching 5 minutes of upsetting images caused a drop in the immune system that lasted more than 24 hours. And the reverse was true when participants watched 5 minutes of happy, uplifting images. It strengthened the immune system!

All of these thought occurred in a little flash as I lay there, not wanting to crawl out of my cozy nest and so I spent about 15 minutes imagining myself walking my favorite river trail – a trail I know so well it was easy to walk it in my mind.  Then I imagined myself flopping in my big orange striped hammock at the end of a day of gardening – pleasantly exhausted and content. By then all my gloomy thoughts had magically evaporated!

I hopped gingerly out of bed, bundled up and fixed my hens a dish of warm food by running their sprouted seeds and grains under warm water, and took it out to them. It’s the second freezing morning of the season, but not cold long enough to freeze their water, I was happy to see. The sun was coming up and there is a blue sky overhead. So after breakfast I may actually go take that walk I did in my imagination this morning!