CATEGORY
Meditation Game
DESCRIPTION
Go fishing for your "daily catch" of good thoughts.
INSTRUCTIONS
Make colorful fish out of stiff plastic, foil, or laminated paper. Label each fish with a name (see TRAITS, CHARACTERISTICS and ADJECTIVES. Secure a paper clip to the "fish" if you are using plastic or laminated paper. Next, make a fishing pole out of a wooden chopstick, shish kabob skewer, or a pencil by using a sturdy string tied to the end of the "pole" on one end and a small magnet on the other end. Put the WISHY FISHY in a bowl of colored water, and use your fishing pole to attract and catch your daily wish.
JOY'S JOURNEY
Words have a lot of power, especially the ones we use to talk to ourselves every day. Changing my internal vocabulary is how I converted my life from "hell and joy" to just "joy" (see UNSCRABBLED). I knew how to be everyone else's best friend except my own. I had to pull together a lot of different ingredients to make a successful recipe: Shira Block's "Step-by-Step Miracles", Dr. M. Scott Peck's "A Road Less Traveled", several books on Myers-Briggs personality type, Shakti Gawain's "Creative Visualization", Jon-Roger and Peter McWilliams' "LIFE 101" series, Dr. Martin Seligman's, "Learned Optimism", Dr. David Burns "The Feeling Good Handbook" and others.
In my experience, each person has to find their own combination of techniques that work for them. There is no single magic ingredient, so put together your own recipe using several ingredients. There's more than one right way, and sometimes you have to build that way yourself, using other people's building blocks.
Wishes start coming true when we pay attention to the words we use. When we begin consciously creating our thoughts, instead of leaving them in an unconscious automatic mode, we steer our own ship instead of leaving it in the hands of what we learned in our childhood. It takes a lot of work in the beginning, but little tricks like WISHY FISHY, BLACK AND WHITE, 'TIL DEATH DO WE PART, SPIRITUAL HOPSCOTCH, HAPPY WHO DAY, and UNSCRABBLED can help you stay conscious to your thoughts. Sure, its easier to lean on a friend or spouse to do this for you. What will happen when that person gets tired of propping you up, though? It's as likely you'll bring them down as it is you'll get brought up
If you're already a conscious and optimistic thinker, then show someone else the way. If you teach people how to think in a realistic yet optimistic manner, you teach them how to feed themselves hope.
QUOTES
to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.
Richard Bach
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you get rid of him on weekends.
Gary Apple
The man who goes fishing gets something
more than the fish he catches.
Mary Astor
Dr. Joy is available to present playful workshops (playshops) at your corporate training retreat, non profit organization gathering, or club membership meetings. She is located in Denver, Colorado, and travels throughout the US to deliver Serious Fun ™ Programs for personal growth, wellness, and inspiration. Please see the program pages for details and contact information.
This playful meditation activity is COPYRIGHTED. If you are a professional trainer, coach, human resources person, counselor, or therapist it is not ethical nor legal for you to use it or share it with your clients or those you supervise/train as part of your job. See the copyright notice on the front page of this e-book. Remember, character is what you do when no one is looking. Please take the high road, and pay me appropriately to use these materials professionally, even if you work for a church, school, non-profit or the government.
© Copyright 1999-2008 by Joy Koenig. All Rights Reserved.
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