The Alchemist, The Book of Job, and Positive Affirmations
So, like I have mentioned in previous posts, I am trying to be more positive and ultimately move forward with my life. I have a playlist to get motivated, I started a devotional, I have worked on actively letting go, I made blues basket, and I have otherwise been making conscious efforts to improve my focus and ultimately my life. So, another part of this is feeding my mind with positive information. So, I want to talk about some of the positive things that I have tried to feed myself and my reaction to them.
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream (Unabridged)
The first thing that I consciously did was listened to The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The audiobook happened to be given away for free on iTunes earlier in the year as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the books publishing.
Before this download, I knew nothing about the book. But I download most of the free stuff from iTunes and just delete what I do not like later. So, I read reviews of the book on various sites, and they were very positive. The book is about following your purpose–right up my alley, right?
Well, I guess I expected too much from the story. There were a lot of clichéd messages/statements throughout the story, but I really expected much more from the end. I don’t know. I guess in this story, the main character never really knew what his purpose was, he just kept floating along until all of the things he had done over time, seemed to make sense. This story did not motivate me, encourage me, or enlighten me any. While it was an interesting listen, I still feel no better about the whole purpose thing. I hate not knowing. I hate feeling like I am wandering through life aimlessly. I do know that everything happens according to God’s plan, but sometimes I just want a little revelation to let me know I am at least on the right track.
Maybe that is my whole problem. I keep trying to figure things out instead of just going with it. I always feel like I may have made the wrong decision here and there, though. I just never know. So, that was The Alchemist.
During my recent and continuing trials, people kept making references to the story of Job in the bible. So, I decided that I would look into the book of Job. I say look into because I was a little bit too lazy to actually read it this time around, although I have read it before. So, I ripped the book off of my Bible Experience: The Complete Bible cds and listened one day.
I would say that parts of it seem repetitive. Basically, Job’s friends keep saying generally the same things. I guess the general idea is that Job lost everything because God gradually released his protection from him so that Satan could test him to see if he would curse God. It went on for a long time, and, in the end, Job never cursed God, nor actually turned away from Him.
However, Job was still in the wrong. He kept crying to God like “what did I do wrong or to deserve this” and “why are you doing this to me.” Job’s friends kept saying that Job must have sinned, and they repeatedly told Job to confess his sin. At the same time, others told Job to curse God and die. While Job never did curse God, he fell to the same faulty thinking that his friends did in trying to figure out what wrong he committed to have the bad experiences that he was having.
The thing is that God can do whatever he wants, and for whatever reason. In Job’s case, it was a test. There was not any thing that he really did wrong. It was a test of faith. And Job kept the faith and was rewarded with more than he had lost in the beginning–and he had lost everything.
So, in my situation, people have referenced this story and said, “It’s just a test.” Still, I never really felt that the same type of thing was going on with me and my situations. While I really tried not to question God, I still felt like I did not deserve to be treated the way that I was by certain people. In other words, I had done nothing wrong to these people to warrant them treating me harshly and with disrespect.
I already knew the story with Job, but I guess it was still good to be reminded of the things that people were telling me–It is just a test, and it will pass. Just stick with God and all will be well. It is just that it is not that comforting when it is all happening.
At least I can say that I felt a little better after listening to The Book of Job when compared with hearing The Alchemist.
Aside from wanting to feel my ears with different types of positivity, the main reason that I bought this audiobook was because it was only $3. At lot of the other books I viewed were five times the price or more, and I am a bit cheap frugal.
So, this is one of those books where they just say positive affirmation over and over again in hopes that your mind picks them up and you change subconsciously for the better. Then, it is important that readers of such books have pleasant voices and that the music is pleasant as well.
I do not really like Louise Hay‘s voice, and she did read the book herself. It is not that she has a bad voice, it just is not a voice that I want to hear on the regular. The music left much to be desired. It is pretty boring music, but I think that it if was anything else, then it would be too distracting, especially with how I am about music. Thus I would say that the music is appropriate.
The voice and music are not so bad, though when you take into account that the few times that I have listened to this, I have listened while I was falling asleep. I am trying to get it subconsciously, and I think that is how it is supposed to be done anyway. You are supposed to listen and go on about your day or listen when you sleep. Since I do the sleep thing, I cannot really say if this makes me feel any better or not. I will say that I did not feel bad when I woke up the few times I did listen, so that is good.
When I do actually consciously hear the affirmations before falling asleep, they do make me think and I even think of some of my own positive affirmations that may better work for me. I have considered recording some of my own positive affirmations to listen to from time to time, but I do not know if I want to hear my own voice like that.
So, these are a few of the positive things that I have been feeding to my mind recently. It is still obviously a work in progress, but at least progress is being made, right?
Leave a comment if you have any positive mind food suggestions. I need to feed my mind grapes. 
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