The 17 Second Rule

I learned the "17 Second Rule" yesterday while driving home from Dance Camp. Here is how it goes. When you feel anxious, frustrated, angry, fettered, negative, whatever the case--tell your mind to picture a place/moment where you felt relaxed and happy and hold that in the forefront while you count to 17 seconds. According to the lady on the radio, this 17 second redirect positively undoes the negative energetic effects of hundreds of hours of worry and all that other negative gunk. So I have given it a try over the last 18 hours. 3 tries actually. So far so good. I keep getting that prancing migraine(picture tie-dye and sparkly tights with the prance---it is just doing its job) whenever I think about going back to work---the three times I've tried the 17 Second Rule-I was able to calm my breath, heartrate, and thoughts...and then some. Gonna keep practicing this. The pictures include the porch at Pine Lake at 5 a.m., walks in the soft rain with my dog at o-somewhat dark 30 and we see the budding smoke trees on our street, the snow out the window at that cabin up at Winthrop when we danced there a few years ago, the view out the window at 9 Quarter Circle across the meadow and up onto the shadowed hills (reminds me instantly of some psalms which speak of God's creation, goodness, and shadowing us with love and protection), the elk meadow at the Field avec or sans elk, any campground in Western WA except South Whidbey State Park or Belfair, my dad's orca family picture hanging on my wall reflected in Christmas lights, the view east from Mark, Dixie, Meaghan, and Maura's house (with a teamug of ale in hand-this is an important piece of that one), the view from my couch at the woodstove with a cozy fire in it, the botannical garden in the Sonoran desert in Arizona.....if you begin to create the list, the places just come gallomping to mind. It's like filling your bucket with pretty seashells at Point No Point or at the beach. Soon, there are too many. That's the 17 Second Rule.

p.s. I loved how the air, the wet, the plants, and sounds reminded me this morning of Oban, Scotland on the morning I was actually going to Iona. Except this morning, I could be there in my heart and here with my silly dog and life all at the same time.