Have you ever seen a raccoon either in the wild or online. There cute little bullseye butts digging through trash for the next best thing. Pulling things out with their little hands and examining all sorts of what we consider trash like it’s a nugget of gold. Or think of dumpster divers who find beautiful treasures among the discarded items that the rest of us wouldn’t think twice about. Now with these fresh, maybe not so beautiful thoughts in your head, imagine what your life could be like if you could bring that mentality into your day to day. Especially those days that just feel like absolute garbage. How would your life look differently? Well for one thing you may feel more joy than you have before, you could see more productivity as you find nuggets of gold to fuel your dreams. You may even find more sense of belonging and inner peace because instead of being surrounded by “garbage” your items could look more like treasures.
In this blog post I hope to showcase the power of adapting a trash panda mentality when it comes to your wellness and provide practical examples that can support you through your everyday life. By the end I will leave you with a plug-n-play that you can add to your mindfulness tool kit to help you create practical change today. As will all our Mindfull Minutes Blog Post I appreciate you for coming along on this journey with me and am so proud of you for taking the time to better your life….today!!!
A trash panda mentality is the automatic brain schema, or brain pattern, that allows you to find the good in any moment especially the hard ones. The moments that leave you craving the next and hoping for something else. This mentality starts by settling presently in the moment and observing all around you. Start by looking at the moment through an unattached nonjudgemental set of lenses. How does the moment feel? What are the facts “or shape” of the moment? What are the known consequences of the moment? Are you safe in this moment? Once you see the moment for what it is start trying to find the gold underneath the dirt. What is one good thing that can come from this moment? How did this moment help you grow? What is this moment showing you? Instead of looking for all that is wrong with your trash try to train your brain instead to look at what is great about this moment?
Using a financial example, I recently used my trash panda mentality to help me tackle financial hurdles. Recently my beautiful baby had a health scare this caused me to miss work and start to fall behind on my bills. My default reaction in the fight or fight response chain is to freeze. I become so overwhelmed with fears and what ifs that I usually put my head in the sand and wait for it to pass. Instead, I adapted my trash panda mentality and took to observing. I wrote down my bills looking at what was due when, what was most important. What bills could be put off and which ones were not optional. This opened up a glimmer of gold and gave me motivation to continue. I then started asking the important questions about what opportunities come with this obstacle. I found avenues to pick up a few extra shifts. I got excited that my bills were organized so I had a better financial picture for the month. I realized that though I am short it is not beyond the realm of solvable. I also observed how much easier it is for me to tackle financial issues than it has been in the past. I saw such growth that though being behind and having to grind a little harder sucks……I still felt like this was such a golden moment because I saw so much growth happen automatically before my eyes.
The trash panda mindset can be adapted to any type of trash bin. Tweak you back trying to pick up the remote that fell on the floor. Instead of looking at it with the mindset that I’m getting so old, this hurts, this sucks you can look at it as a call from your body. It could be a reminder that you need to stretch, motivating you to do a little movement. Going to work and hating every moment of it instead of looking at it as a burden look at it as an activity that comes with a paycheck. An avenue for financial change that just comes with an annoying price tag. Sit down to do work and only get a paragraph written, half of a task done, or only folded one piece of laundry well that’s more progress than you would have made if you did nothing. Find yourself living through one of the worst days of your life, at least your still living you haven’t given up and that’s the best most valuable thing of all. You are surviving, you are still fighting, you are still here. As time goes on you will find more gold, a lesson will be learned, an uplevel will happen and as that does polish that moment even more. Whether it’s a bathroom trashcan or a Walmart dumpster the trash panda will always find something good every time he takes a moment to search.
Now that you have adopted your trash panda mentality it’s time to train it. As moms teach their pups to dig you must teach your mind to search. This plug-n-play is called the trash panda mindset. Every time something “bad” happens, every time you stumble into some trash start with the search. Observe 3 things about your trash. Factual non-judgmental things about your moment. Start to search, look for a lesson, look for some benefit to your current situation. THE ANSWER IS NEVER NONE….but instead I don’t see it yet! It may take a minute, it may take weeks write down your answers so you can add to it and keep inventory as you make this shift. Find 3 good things about your trash. Embrace the find. Once you find your gold you need to take it. Consume it, store it, stash it take this gold and begin to integrate that this thing that is trash might actually be treasure. As with all plug-n-plays the next steps are rinse and repeat. Move on from your moment to the next. Do what needs to be done, either a task or just go on and wait for the next pile of trash you find. This process will become easier, your mindset with shift it will become more automatic with each reputation and watch how your wellness changes, how your life changes. See how much closer you are to that goal or thing. When you take the time to be present in each moment and find the best in the worst.
Congrats!! You made it to the end; you have adopted your trash panda it’s a little babe who hasn’t even opened its eyes yet. Its excited, its here and ready to go. Go forth my friends and find your treasure and always know The Mindfulness Aid is here to support you in your everyday life. Thank you for supporting this blog, please check out our social media page for more free content, paid content and an amazing ever-growing community. Check out our website for more information and past blog posts designed to help you take your wellness into your own hands. Go in love my friends until the next time.
