Skip to main content

Positive Mental Attitude

This past week I was off on an adventure.  On Monday, in the darkness of an early morning, I boarded a charter bus full of 5th graders, teachers, and other chaperones headed to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, MN.  5 days and 4 nights together, with a schedule so intense that I wondered if I had made a mistake when I volunteered to go.

I was a veteran to Wolf Ridge, but my last trip was in ninth grade and my memory of the experience was very sketchy.  One thing that I did remember was a class called Winter Survival.  A three hour course in which you and your teammates were "stranded" in the woods and had to use the simple supplies provided to make shelter, build a fire, and make hot cocoa.  At the time I was scared of matches so starting a fire felt super daunting and I remember the COLD as we worked to build a shelter!  

This time around, the class fell on our last day.  I was prepared with hand warmers and many layers.  We met in the classroom for a quick discussion before we would head out to "survive."  The naturalist divided us into teams and gave each group laminated cards with the basic necessities printed on them.  Food, Water, Air, Shelter, PMA, Warmth.  We had to try to place them in order of priority.

We looked them over.  PMA was Positive Mental Attitude; something that I never heard listed as a basic need, but soon found out that it was the top priority, even over air.  When something goes wrong and you find yourself in a situation of peril, the first thing you have to do is decide that you want to take a breath, decide that you are going to try, decide that you can make it and want to live.  The kids were surprised and wanted to argue about the urgent need for air, but our leader was adamant that we would have to have PMA in order to make any of the other things happen. 

My team survived the class.  We worked together to build a shelter, gather firewood, and start a fire (to heat snow that eventually turned into cold cocoa-yuck!).  It was a lesson in patience and persistence.  Twice our fire went out and we had to restart.  I felt like giving up.  It was the last day of a long trip and even though my team was full of adults, none of us had much "fire master" experience.  It would have been easy to throw in the towel and pretend that we had made it through the challenge, but we didn't.  We finished with a hearty clink of our tin cups of cold cocoa and a sigh of relief that we had survived.

I was so grateful for this lesson.  I needed the reminder that I have a choice in how I want to enter each situation.  Negative or positive.  Sink or swim.  Each time I am presented with difficult news or circumstances, I get to decide if I am going to put PMA first on my priority list.  Can I muster the courage to dig in and say yes, this is worth it, I can and will make something happen?

I am so happy that our fifth graders got the message that attitude is everything.  It is a lesson that I hope they will carry with them for a long time.  I know I will.




Check in with your PMA?  What is your first reaction when adversity strikes?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letting go & holding on- how you can do both at the same time

Everyday I am thinking about letting go.  My days are spent in sessions with clients, or reading about decluttering tips, or writing blog posts, all in an effort to support clients as they let go of clutter and unwanted habits.  Letting go is something that I have made into my life's work, but never is it more "in my face" than when I sit with my grandma at the nursing home.  My grandma has Dementia/Alzheimers.  I don't even know what or which or why or how, but I do know that it seems we have lost her to the disease and letting go & holding on are happening all at once. As I sit and watch her sleep, I can stroke her hand and feel the many memories of playing Go to the Dump or Crazy Eight on my days off of Kindergarten, getting a home perm in her kitchen in elementary school, and painting my nails at her kitchen nook in H.S.  I remember learning how to snap a dish towel with my cousins as we cleaned up from holiday gatherings & singing and dancing...
2 comments
Read more

Any way the wind blows

Last week I was challenged to take a day to myself.  Actually take it for "myself."  Decide what I wanted to do.  What the spirit moved me to do. I find this challenge is so hard in a culture where getting things done is the measure of success.  Whenever I have a "day off," I think of all of the things that I need to get done and race around to get them done quickly and then maybe I can fit in a bit of time for myself. This assignment was different.  I needed to keep the agenda only on things that felt "right" for that day.  I set off with a little list of errands (in case there was time after "my time" to make some stops) and a general idea of where I wanted to go, but when I got in the car and started driving I felt some rebellion stirring. I didn't want to take the usual route.  I didn't want to see what I always see.  It felt like being on my usual path might create the temptation to do something that wasn't really in my hea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Growth and Action

"Envision your dreams down through your hands and out into the world." -The Book of Awakening This morning the routine of school began again.  It was a beautiful morning.  An exciting morning without a lot of rush or fuss.   Families gathered.  A beautiful poem was shared to kick off a year of new beginnings.  Two kids followed their teacher in to school with heads held high.   I left the school feeling freedom and excitement.  I felt open and ready.  I came home to begin my new year.   I sat down and pulled out my daily reading and read about a grandmother telling her grandson to envision his dreams down through his hands and out into the world.  The words were meant for this day.  A day to set a course of action and growth.  A day to take the dreams that were uncovered and see them move in the world.     Last year was a time to reflect, learn, dig deep, uncover, wait, take small steps, keep my...
Post a Comment
Read more