Change Your Atmosphere!


A few years ago while writing a book called Blue Skies and Green Lights (to be released by Loving Healing Press next month, under the name It’s Your Choice! Decisions That Will Change Your Life) I decided to do some research.  At the time I was working for Kaiser Permanente in southern California and had noticed that some days the office hummed with good humor and diligent employees, loving their work.  On other days everyone was either on PMS or menopause and whatever the male equivalent of that was.

So I decided to do a test.  The next day I walked in, snarled at the receptionist when she said “good morning”, banged my purse down on my desk, headed for the lunchroom where I put my lunch in the refrigerator and closed it with a bang.  When one of the other employees asked if something was wrong, I growled with a snapping display of teeth and answered, “Yes, I’m not in a mood to work,” and stormed out of the lunch room.  For the entire morning my tone was negative, my attitude was surly and I did a pretty good imitation of the grouchiest person I’d ever known.

I started noticing something.  The receptionist began barking at the patients, the patients were cranky and complaining; even the Chief of Service, normally the best natured man I’d ever known, had a face filled with frowns and a lost look in his eye. My boss was the bossiest I’d ever known her to be and at least three of the clerks said that if they were given any more work they were calling in sick tomorrow.  Amazing!

The following day I did the opposite.  I fairly sang my “good morning” greeting to the receptionist, told her that color looked great on her, it made her look sexy; when I put my lunch away I said “good morning” in a pleasant voice to the three staff members that were in the lunchroom; told my boss that her hair look gorgeous (that might have been pushing my luck, her every day hairdo was a butch cut) and spent the entire day not only working hard but acting like I loved what I was doing.  I exchanged pleasantries with very staff member I encountered, sympathized with a patient that had the sniffles, congratulated a mother on having not only the prettiest child I’d ever seen but the most well behaved and in general just acted like it was my job to light up the environment and make this the best day everyone had ever have.  And, no surprise there, everyone in the office was in a great mood, patient, uncomplaining and good humored.

Can you imaging what the world would be like if all of us did this on a daily basis?  I know, I know.  Sometimes we’re entitled to be cranky. But, there’s an added benefit.  If you are in a bad mood and begin to slowly change it to a good mood you’ll find that it was pretty effortless and had great benefits.

Negative energy not only attracts negative energy but it creates negative energy.  Positive energy creates positive energy.  Energy not only changes the atmosphere but it encourages either good things (found a $20 bill in the parking lot and no one in the office said they lost it – hooray, I’m treating myself to a great lunch) or bad things (received a phone call from your mother-in-law saying she was coming for a visit.)

It’s magic!

One time when I was following our security officer as he unlocked all the doors he entered the copy room and when he tried to unlock the door on the other side of the room his key wouldn’t work.  He kept trying it and became increasingly annoyed when it wouldn’t cooperate.  He muttered something about having to get a locksmith out to get this lock fixed.  I asked him if he’d let me try.  He gave me his key with a smug “aha, you think you can do better than me?” look.  I took a deep breath, smiled and literally surrounded that door knob with happy thoughts.  I relaxed, put the key in the knob and it opened immediately.  “How’d you do that?” he questioned as he scratched his head.  I gave him a quick lesson on positive and negative energy and told him I had learned it one day when I was supposed to unlock the door and had the same result he had.

Try it!  It works!



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