I went to Barbados for New Years Eve to celebrate the ringing in of 2020.

There was a group of six of us that spent the week happily roasting in the sun all day, having daily wine and cheese at happy hour and eating large amounts of fresh seafood. It was a joyful, carefree moment in time.

On New Year’s day, January 1st 2020, I did a meditation with a close friend who has been growing his life coaching business and wanted to start the new year setting intentions.

We sat alone on this pristine white sand beach, in a gorgeous little cove, that looked like something out of a movie set. Pale blue shallow waters ebbed out for a quarter of a mile before the dark blue depths of the ocean.

We talked about plans, obstacles and the ultimate triumph of our goals in this picturesque setting for a couple of hours. It felt truly transformational.

We got home and January and February proceeded to be the most shit storm months I’ve had in a long time. At this writing March doesn’t seem to be the best either, with the world virus exploding on the scene, setting everyone’s fears ablaze.

The point of  this story is that intention setting can be kind of complicated, because whatever is happening we have to stay positive. To say just stay positive is so simple that its even trite. The fact remains that if we maintain the notion that everything will workout and try our damndest to focus on it all working out, then our journey is much more pleasant and we as a group can actually change the world. Our positive thoughts become a collective critical mass that tip the scales of the outcome for all.

So it works like this: I’m in the middle of a shit storm month, finances are bad, relationships turbulent, etcetera. As I focus on it, I’m amazed how one thing after another is continually going south until I reach a sleepless stressed out, overwhelmed night where I think I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Suddenly things somewhat work themselves out, not in the best way ever, and certainly not the way I wanted, but the world didn’t end, I’ve survived. I begin to think about what has gone right. I force myself to think about the good things, that seem a little grey now through my resentment. I search for answers with psychics and mystics. I preoccupy myself with social media and celebrity gossip. I finally retreat back in to my religion, reading psalms and praying.

My dad used to always say “if you’re going to pray don’t worry and if you’re going to worry don’t pray” meaning if you’re going to pray then worrying means you don’t have faith in your prayer. Jesus talks about the pointlessness of worrying too, when he says “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Then it dawns on me, I don’t have all the answers but I have to try to stay consistently positive because despite whatever happens worrying and complaining makes life completely miserable.

I look up at the sky and decide screw it, I’m just going to release my anxiety and enjoy my day. Let go of the fear of the things that I don’t have the power to control. I take a walk outside, read a little bit, daydream about pleasant things, pet my dog, clear my mind of thoughts and feel with deep knowing that everything will work itself out.

So maybe while I’m having that epiphany, down the road a mother with two screaming kids, a postal worker driving by, an old man sick in bed, are also simultaneously realizing that everything will work itself out. They’ve reached this conclusion through a different set of painful circumstances but somehow they’ve come to understand that peace is the antithesis of worry. That peace has a sort of power. With out even knowing it we produce a subtle energy shift in our environment.

Do a test see how it effects the people around you when you focus consistently on the belief that everything will work out. Ultimately our goal has to be to thrive with health, love, abundance and a richness of joyful, interesting experiences. For now let’s start focusing on the belief that everything will work out.

The reality is there is always some impending doom, especially if you look at the media.

The onus is on us to make our lives and our world better but it starts within. When we uplift ourselves without knowing it, we uplift each other.