This past week I spent four glorious days with three of the best people I know… my Wild Women Book Club besties. As we have for the past 15 years, we marked the time off a year in advance, held the time sacred, and traveled from all parts of the country to have this time together. We always fill our days with a few activities we all enjoy regularly like taking walks, playing pickleball, working out, kayaking, riding bikes, eating great meals, taking sunset boat rides, and getting massages. We usually add in one or two things per trip that are new to us like going to a shooting range, taking an everglades boat tour, ax throwing, or exploring a museum or historical site. Mostly, we just hang out, relax, talk, drink hot tea, catch up on our lives, and laugh. Oh, how we laugh!
I was struck this year with the memories of how this group of women have supported each other through all kinds of ups and downs, joy and grief, feast and famine. I realized that they have formed me in meaningful ways just by being who they are. I’ve learned from them and grown as a woman and as a human being. I’ve been influenced by their values, insights, wisdom, and unconditional love. They have, in a very real sense, rubbed their goodness off on me, and I am all the better for it.
The company you keep is important. If you leave your coat in a room where people are smoking, pretty soon it will smell like smoke. If you hang it outside on the clothesline in the warm breeze, it will smell like the summer air and the fragrance of flowers when you bring it indoors.
The same is true for us. Our thoughts absorb the vibrations of those we hang out with. Our mind and our beliefs are influenced by what we observe about those with whom we spend the most time. If you hang out with pessimists, over time you will become more pessimistic. If you hang out with positive, happy people, you can’t help but develop a more optimistic, happy nature.
So, it matters who we seek out and the relationships we invest in. It also matters how we are with others because in lots of small ways that we are not even aware of, we are forming them, too.
This week, consider the qualities of those you spend the most time with and in whom you invest the most time. Do they uplift you, encourage you, and even lovingly challenge you to become the best version of yourself? If not, stretch your circle and look for the people who exhibit the characteristics you admire and aspire to possess. Quality is better than quantity when it comes to good and positively influential friends. So, be choosey and pick wisely.
“Environment is stronger than willpower. Whether one becomes a saint or a sinner is, to a great extent, determined by the company one keeps.”
~ Paramhansa Yogananda
Comments
OhKathy, such wise words! I have been able to distance myself from those negative people all of my life. It really doesn’t take long to figure out the negativity that some people choose to have in their life. My health depends on being positive and your beautiful words are reinforcement.
Lucille, I’m so glad. Your health is definitely impacted by the energy around you. I’m glad you have surrounded yourself with only those who value living in positivity and optimism. Sending hugs…
Hi Katherine,
As usual checking emails a month behind. I started the year with the great purge, letting go of what doesn’t serve me. Sometimes it can be hard as in a job when you know it is time to move on, but just can’t take that first step, other times it is easy, I was amazed by all I shredded and it felt good. I had health issues this year and I know it is from the negativity at work. I took the first step CV is updated, time to attract what I want in my life. Thank you for your wonderful words as always.
Dr. Erica, you are most welcome! So happy to hear that you are trusting yourself to do whatever it takes to attract and create the life you want and deserve. Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to write to me. It means the world to us here at LionSpeak!