So Much Energy

Ever see Monster’s Inc.? The monsters use the screams of children to power their city. Monster’s Inc. is the company that employs the professional Scarers–monsters who pop out of closets to scare kids to collect the screams. The monster world experiences an energy shortage because it was getting harder to scare children in the modern, high-tech world. Eventually monsters learn that the laughter of children is more powerful than their screams. They get more energy from laughs than screams, and change the mission of Monster’s Inc.

Laughter is more powerful than screams. Happiness is more powerful than pain.

We as humans store pain. We store it in our brains, hearts, and souls. Even our bodies store the memory of pain. We store it, not fully realizing that it is slowly draining us. Basically, we are all air beds with a slow leak.

If you are a walking, talking, leaking air bed, think about who you could be leaking on every day. What pain are you sharing? What energy are you transferring?

The most underrated aspect of self-care is boundary setting. Setting boundaries means you have honest dialogues with yourself about what you will and won’t accept. Setting boundaries can range from taking more days off to telling your best friend you don’t want to hear about his cheating habits anymore. It can be limiting the negative images around you. And also clearing out the things and people in your life that don’t have purpose and light.

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Setting boundaries is like patching the hole. You find the energy hemorrhage and begin to repair it.

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Practicing self-care is like canning the laughter. Taking care of yourself–mind, body, and spirit–allows you to store the light, positive energy.

Now back to Monster’s Inc. for a second. Mr. Waternoose, the former CEO of Monster’s Inc., was so desperate for more screams (energy), that he had begun to attempt to kidnap and torture children, forcing the screams out of them. Graphic, right?

Have you ever walked around either snapping at people or sharing the story of the worst day of your life (this week) with every living soul with working ears? While you did not kidnap a cute little toddler named Boo, you are certainly sharing the negative energy in an attempt to quell your own pain. Thankfully, for most of us, that is the worst of what we do to share our pain.

Most people aren’t Mr. Waternoose. They aren’t going to reduce to doing horrible things to people. Most aren’t Sully either. He saw that positive energy was more powerful than negative energy and sought to share that vision and capitalize on the energy.

Most of us are Mike Wazowski. Rejoicing when good things happen and fretting when bad things happen. Lashing out when the pressure gets too high.

It’s okay to be Mike. Mike deals with life like any other (non) human being. But Sully’s philosophy allows the ability to cultivate lighter and happiness out of life.

Be Sully. Set boundaries. ‘Refrain from spreading your negativity and receiving the negativity of others. Laugh more. Cultivate happiness and positive energy.

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