The warm, lazy days of summer offer an opportunity to spend more time outside in nature. We play more. Longer days also allow us to relax; to experience more of the sweetness of life. There is an abundance of color and growth in the natural world. We make a point of taking a vacation or a staycation. A common activity is to pack a picnic basket and enjoy a simple meal under the welcoming shade of a tree. We can enjoy the sounds of the birds and the wind rustling through the branches. We can stretch out and take a nap on the soft grass and feel the earth beneath our feet. We can engage in meditative thought in peaceful surroundings. We can also be annoyed. Even in the quiet beauty of nature, we can become distracted by negative thoughts.
Your thoughts can take the form of a mosquito buzzing in your ear, keeping you tuned into an unpleasant distraction or an unwelcome thought. Or your thoughts can seem like a line of ants marching across your picnic blanket, messing up your solitude and wreaking havoc on your plans. In either case, you can choose to observe the mosquito or the ants. You can swat at the mosquito and allow it to disturb you. Or you can ignore it. You can watch as the ants march off the other side of the blanket and disappear from sight. Or you can panic and rearrange everything on your blanket to avoid contact with them. In either case, you could focus on the annoying things. You could fuss over them. You could get angry with them. You could feel sad that they have ruined your picnic. You could even let them bite you!
But you have power over the annoying insects. You have power over the annoying thoughts. You decide. It’s your choice. It’s always your choice.
Are you making yourself suffer? Maybe you think the mosquito or the ant is what is making you unhappy…those things outside of you that are out to get you…to make you suffer. But it’s not the outside things that are making you suffer. It’s your reaction to the things. And you are in control of your reactions. You have the freedom to make a choice to react differently when the annoying things get to you.
When you focus on the negative, you suffer. When you react in a negative manner, you increase your suffering. Pay attention to your thoughts. Focus on the ones that make you happy. Relax and enjoy the picnic. Summer will be over soon. Everything in life is temporary. Don’t waste your time slapping at mosquitos or fretting over ants. Stay within your place of inner peace when outside things threaten to annoy you.