The Power of Good

I am on a vacation but not a vacation. I am on a retreat but not a retreat. I am at the beach but not a beach. I am somewhere I’ve never been but not somewhere I’ve never been.

I am on a personal journey to find my life. How many times have people said that? How can you find your life? You’re living, aren’t you? How can you lose something so tangible, so palpable?

I came to where I am because I helped save someone’s life two weeks ago. It was extremely frightening and traumatic. I came here trusting that something good would happen.

Little did I know that I would find myself again. I found more of myself in the silence than in the words of those around me. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I went outside, put a 5 or 10 minute timer on my phone. I sit in the chair with my eyes closed and just listened. I heard the birds. I heard the trees in the wind. I heard planes. I heard faint voices. I felt the sun piercing through my closed eyes. But no words.

For those few moments, I was one with my surroundings. I was one with my experiences in that moment. More often than not, I would be disappointed when the 5-10 minute timer would bring me back to reality, whatever that means. I thought I was more in reality than ever before.

My greatest discovery being here has been that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a death sentence. I, as well as many other people, have been very traumatized. I think you can agree that this world is messy, but it does not have to be. THIS WORLD DOES NOT HAVE TO BE. We live in an absolutely beautiful world.

What are you saying, Chelsea? How can you say that when it seems like our world seems to be falling apart?

It is not falling apart. We have a God who can transform all the bad into good. If you take time out of your busy day to see the beauty of this universe, you can see the beauty. Your world revolves around what you focus on.

The beauty of the brain, which I have studied extensively, is that it can change. I have noticed just this past week how powerful focusing on the GOOD rather than the bad can be.

Someone told me a few days ago that we can have bad triggers but there can also be GOOD triggers. I did not really understand that at first. But once I began recalling good memories, I found a different experience than I had rarely experienced before. I laughed, I smiled, joy filled my body.

GOOD is powerful.