A friend recently shared an experience with me that I thought was a great example of choosing to shift the flow of experience unfolding in the present moment.  She was in a cab, traveling from the one side of Manhattan to the other through one of the transverses that cross Central Park.  The transverses travel across and under the park, but not in it, so they have overpasses that take cars under park walkways and roads overhead.  The nice thing is that, even though the cars aren’t actually in the park, riders can see many trees along the sides of the transverses.

On this day, my friend reported that, as soon as the cab turned onto the transverse, the traffic stopped and the cab driver began to become agitated.  The energy of his upset built, and my friend began to talk about the beauty of the trees, the fact that she and the driver would have plenty of time to enjoy them, and that maybe it was a gift to be able to relax among the trees for a little while on a busy day.  Her comment shifted the energy and soon the cab driver was talking about his love of trees and their beauty.  He even ended up telling her about his church and singing her a gospel song as their conversation deepened.

Her description of this experience encompassed, for me, the best of how we can at least attempt to shift things when what’s unfolding takes an unpleasant turn.  I’ve written before about solution-focused therapy approaches, where clients are encouraged to see what’s working in a situation rather than what’s wrong or lacking.  This is a great example of that kind of shift.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to play with shifting the focus of experiences that unfold in your daily life.  If something happens that begins to take on a negative or unpleasant tone, notice what happens if you look for the gift in it and begin to express yourself from that point of view. 

This doesn’t mean to overlook things that need to be changed, or situations you actually need to leave.  Rather, it’s an invitation to explore what happens when you pay attention to the possibility that there’s a different way to move through an experience.

As with all the experiments, please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion.  With curiosity in the driver’s seat, your awareness is primed to notice things you might otherwise overlook, and you might see options that ordinarily are hidden to you.  Actively shifting the quality of what’s unfolding is one of the ways we can be co-creators in generating the quality of life we live moment to moment. 

Being conscious of the possibility that we can make these kinds of shifts offers us an empowering gift and allows us to be engaged in helping to shape what unfolds in our experience moment to moment.  As I’ve said so many times, while we can’t control what comes our way, how we respond to life’s events and challenges resides within us.