This could be a blog about what a hell of a weekend I’ve had. Day after day filled with frustration, anxiety, worry and beating myself up.
But thankfully it’s not, due to a powerful internal shift that I wasn’t aware of until I actually needed to be.
I’m not going to go into the long drawn out story of calls and chats with Apple support, followed by visits Genius Bar. I will spare you the part about one tech having me do some “troubleshooting steps” that actually resulted in my computer being more screwed up than when I began. This ultimately had me go to the Genius Bar empty-handed due to being in the midst of an epic 60+ hour “Erase and Restore from Time Capsule” that had my devices otherwise engaged. And I’m definitely not going to tell you that even when I asked said Genius for a another appointment –– one that was sooner than the next available online in 48 hours later –– with a straight-up outright request for the appointment they must be saving for Obama should he be in the area with an immediate mac-mergency, the Genius said, “I’m sorry but no, we’re not holding anything for him.”
I didn’t actually believe him and don’t like to take “No” for an answer, but he was sweet and helpful and I trusted his advice since it’s what he said he’d do in my situation. Maybe they always say that, but I found a bit of solace in it. I mean really, at that point, what was I to do given that my laptop –– with the contents of my entire life on it, basically –– had been deleted and was now receiving a data transfusion (I hope!) from my time capsule backup.
As I left the store I got an instant hit that I really did have a choice about what thoughts to think which would, in turn, affect how I was feeling.
In that moment I chose to envision my computer completely healed, all data in tact. I decided that I wasn’t going to spend the rest of the day or weekend feeling frustrated or beating myself up for doing this or not doing that since I have come to learn and accept that I am always doing the very best I can at any given time.
I made up my mind to be kind to myself, remembering how futile it is to stress out about any impending outcome. Que sera, sera…whatever will be, will be…and my worrying certainly won’t help matters. But my positive thoughts can. Or at least they can support me in having a fun weekend filled with love, hikes, meaningful connections and conversations, yummy meals, and even some writing after I dug out and dusted off my old MacPowerBook from 1902.
My system flooded with joy and relief, knowing that I no longer need to choose my old default habit of stewing in a negative funk. Instead, by accepting what is and surrendering, positivity and peace are just one thought away.
Thankfully, after a few stops and starts, I’m happy to report that the restore worked! My computer is fully up and running in all its glory – with all of my data!
Lesson learned! I’m so grateful I didn’t waste a weekend – or even part of day – and that I really get, on a visceral level, how empowered we all are to create our own experiences by consciously choosing which thoughts to think in each moment.
What can you change today, just by choosing a different thought?
