An Evening With Dr. Dyer

Lindsey and I are both fans of Dr. Wayne Dyer--an inspirational (not motivational, as he is quick to emphasize) writer and speaker. We went to Seattle a couple of years ago and saw him in person, and when Lindsey heard that a movie was going to be showing at a theater in nearby Corvallis, she asked me if I wanted to go with her. I was able to get off of work an hour early yesterday, so I hustled myself down I-5 and made it to Albany just in time to say a quick hello to Morgan and for Lindsey to jump in the car with me. Then it was off to Corvallis. After we bought tickets and found seats, we found we were JUST in time: the movie began a few minutes later.

The movie ran for 2 and a half hours, and when it was over, Linds and I compared notes. She was expecting something different than a lecture (maybe more of a multi-media experience), but what we saw was somehow just what I had imagined: Dr Dyer talking about a new book that he is writing called Wishes Fulfilled, and lots of anecdotes from his personal and professional life illustrating the things I hear over and over from self-help authors: how necessary it is to our well-being to have an attitude of forgiveness and gratitude toward everything in one's life (whether we see it as "good" or "bad"), and the huge one about constantly checking our thoughts to make sure they are in alignment with what we want. That is the hardest lesson for me to learn--I find it is so easy to slip into old patterns of complaining and "poor me-ing," but when I really think about it, complaining has never made me feel any better. Ever. One thing that I've noticed recently (and that Dr. Dyer emphasized in his talk) is that if I take a situation that I don't like and try to put it in a positive light, I feel more peaceful. He said that attitude is always a choice and it is always ours--and boy, is he right. It's just a matter of changing my habitual reactions and thought patterns. As I write this, I am thinking, "Easier said than done," but it really is easy to think one way over another way. The question is, how willing am I to think differently and respond to people and events differently?

So for me, seeing Dr. Dyer gave me the encouragement I need right now--encouragement to keep working on my writing, and to practice envisioning the life I want right now instead of waiting for it to come to me--being happy now instead of expecting to be happy when I get everything I want. I have already been doing this to some extent, but last night I realized just how much I need it to be at the center of all of my thoughts and actions, all the time. I guess this realization is my resolution for 2010--and if I can really train myself in a new way of thinking and responding, if I am diligent about thinking with love about every person and every situation in my life, I wonder how my life will be different at the end of the year?