When looking through a kaleidoscope it can be aesthetically pleasing to one's eyes. Viewing two or more reflecting surfaces tilted to each other at an angle so that the object/s on one end of the mirrors are seen in a symmetrical pattern when you are looking at it on the other end due to the perpetual reflection. The images you see and all of the different colors combined can be distinctly beautiful.
But what happens when you look through your own life's kaleidoscope?? Is it aesthetically pleasing to your soul's eyes, or are the images you view far more twisted for you to even recognize anything worthwhile?? I ask these questions, not to get a consensus or anything of the sort, but I ask these questions to raise awareness of what we all see and what we subject ourselves to in our everyday lives.
Just before the end of 2017 hit, something in me was awakened. This realization came to me in the midst of the stormiest time of the year for me. Fall is a very weird, dark, and twisty time that always seems to turn everything upside down and inside out, but this year around , all of this chaos was a blessing in disguise. Even though things were stormy, I was able to see a pattern in certain things that triggered me to stay in this state of mind. It was really strange because I felt like if I hadn't gone through these painful situations, I would still be in the blind to what wasn't helping me or what wasn't serving me well. I mean, the year before I ran to these situations and people because I found comfort in all of this chaos, I know how it sounds, but that's just how distorted my vision was. I was a different person, in the year that had passed, I grew into someone different, I had outgrown the mindset I was stuck in. Being in this new mindset not only allowed me to see how toxic some people were in my life, but I was even able to spot this toxicity in my social media, in the conversations I had and a plethora of other things I engaged in. This cocktail of people, situations, and things were all just reoccurring cycles of toxicity that were feeding the storm that I was in. I was blindly giving all of this negative energy the power to destroy me and to turn me into someone that I'm not.
And it was then, in the thick of this internal dark and twisted storm, I decided that my life not only needed a positive change, but deserved a positive change in order to cultivate a peaceful place within myself, where I could live in and not just survive. I made a list of things that I was going to stop engaging in, (making an actual list on paper helps me to reinforce these changes that I wanted to make, because when you just make a verbal agreement with yourself it can be easily overlooked and ignored. Having a visual just makes it all the more real is all I'm saying.) be it chiming in on conversations that are just of surface level negativity, talking to people who thrived on negativity, taking off people and pages that I followed on my social media because they were stunting my own personal growth, I'm a little ashamed of how long this list was because I didn't realize how much I had given in to this behavior. I mean, all of these things were feeding this monster of a storm within me and not healing the parts of my soul that needed peace. These things, people, and situations that I always found myself in we're all distorting my life's kaleidoscope and blinding me from seeing all of the beauty that surrounded me.
It can be relatively easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of negativity these days, you could literally be one swipe away on your phone from it, and it can be a vicious cycle if you choose to put your energy into it. Which brings me to the question I raised earlier, are the images you see through your life's kaleidoscope aesthetically pleasing to your soul?? We all have a choice on how we view the events that occur in our lives, it is up to us on how we choose to spin things, either for us, or against us. It all starts with us and making changes in all areas of our lives that need positive tuning. You can make these changes in baby steps if needed, whatever works best for you because we all develop at different paces, so long as you are consistent with these changes. But just keep in mind that all of this stuff takes time, so being graceful with yourself is a must!! I'm not implying that things will always go perfectly either because life happens to everyone all of the time, but when you are going through those trying times you will already have tools to help you process, cope, and be more at peace and feel more grounded with the place you have cultivated within yourself that isn't as rigid as it once was.
You can either fall victim to the negativity that exists or be a creator of inner peace, which kaleidoscope will you choose to look through??
