Navigating Positivity Pt. 2

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“The power of story is the foundation by which we are able to navigate through our lives.”

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Dr. Oneeka Williams:

Hello, positivity, posse, and welcome back to the #PositivityPause. There are so many benefits to being very intentional about having this process of positivity in our lives. As I have said, the power of story is the foundation by which we are able to navigate through our lives. I wanted us to talk about one of the navigation systems that we so often use the G P S and I'd like to welcome my husband, Dr. Charles Anderson. Welcome to the positivity pause podcast. I am so thrilled that you are here today.

That's why I love these conversations because it really challenges you to stretch your thinking. What I would actually say is that I think that the Waze example is perfect because we have the human construct, but we know that God's ways are not always going to be our ways. Here is why I love the way's analogy as a human analogy and as we try to create these paths, the sort of understanding in something that we can relate to, something that we know is that it really connects to the power.

When we talk about the power of story, the power of story is about how are we using our experiences to help others, to define their paths, to help others to understand ways of approaching things, to help others to understand potential obstacles that they can potentially encounter and how they might navigate through those. This is the power of sharing our stories. So the crowdsourcing of Waze, the ability to share our stories, to share our paths, to have role models that identify people that look like you, who have walked ahead of you, who are further down the road that could look back and say, “Hey, this is an obstacle that you might encounter here is how you might consider navigating through it or around it”, or “Here is my experience maybe you can learn something from that so that you don't potentially have the same negative experience”. There is value in other people's experiences, informing your path and when I think about the connection to God, I truly believe that those are angels. Those are people that God positions in your path, so that there's not a disconnection, it's not an either or.

The analogy of Waze is very similar to the analogy of how God will put people in your sphere, in your orbit, in your path that will have divine encounters. And so the Waze analogies, as you bump into obstacles here and there become the God analogies where we have these encounters, whether they're challenges, whether they're these divine appointments, whether they're these, amazing, just synergies that you meet, someone who shows up at the exact time when you need something in particular who has an experience that blesses you, it is really the same type of engagement. It is the same type of encounter, but it is just that within the Waze in encounter that there is that human error, the technical error that can occur.

When we think about God and we think about our God positioning system, there are many times that would be my thing, oh, this must be an error, but we can trust that whatever those obstacles are, the we encounter, whatever those challenges, whatever the mountains, whatever the valleys, all of the things that we will encounter along the way, whereas with Waze, you know, you think of it as gosh, Waze is not working. We know that God is working, that everything he does is well done so that as you encounter those things along the way, we can be secure and confident that that feedback loop that we're getting, because God positions various people in various situations in our lives, it is meant to create a character response in us. It is meant to strengthen us. It is meant to increase our faith is meant to enlarge our territory. It is meant to bring us into certain types of relationships. There is a purpose for it so, whereas the Waze analogy is not meant to have an equivalent to what God does and how he does it. I think it does provide an understanding of something that you encounter on a daily basis that you can see. Wow, there are a lot of similarities here that I can now see how God works with his God positioning system.

Dr. Charles Anderson:

That makes sense. I can definitely see that that makes a lot of sense and I think as people are thinking about this and part of what we're doing here is just having an opportunity to explore this. So when we encourage people to do the same, because it really is understanding. I like the way you talk about in terms of positioning system, right? In instead of a global positioning system, relying on satellites and other things to tell you, this is where you are, and this is where you're supposed to be. It really is by talking about terms with God positioning system. Similarly, it's God saying, this is where you are, and this is where you're supposed to be. If the outcome of practicing these habits of positivity is about being comfortable with that positioning, then you're absolutely right.

There is comfort, there is just joy in understanding that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be, right? Then the direction and moving is with every single movement you're also being told that you're where you're supposed to be with every step that's where you're supposed to be. It's that part of it that I do think, you know, these habits are, are critical in terms of being able to stay in that place where you're supposed to be and as you say, instead of saying, “oh, no, no, that's not where I'm supposed to be, that's not where I want to be” and turn around and going someplace else. So tell me a little bit more about let's pick one of the habits, right? So, let's walk through how one of the habits and practicing the habit can allow me to be comfortable being at that position and accepting that as the position I'm supposed to be in.

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“If you believe and you trust, and you have that unshakeable faith, that because your GPS is connected, you are positioned exactly where you are supposed to be.”

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Dr. Oneeka Williams:

Well, I think that what you have said that is really, really important as we think about positioning and we think about Waze is that Waze only works if your phone has good reception, if there's that connection. So, what we are doing in this positivity pause is pressing the pause button to create those points of connection. One of the things that we will talk about, and we'll explore further over the next coming week is what do we do during these positivity pauses?

One of the things that we do during the positivity pauses, this is really about self-care, this is really about taking the time to press the pause on all of the competing demands for your attention and center in you and on you. As you create this opportunity for the places where you redefine, recharge, reset before you resume, it really allows for this enhancement of your mental, emotional, and physical health. We call this place a place of self-care and the pneumonic for that self-care that helps you to know and remember what you do during the pauses is number one, connecting spiritually. So for you to have your God positioning system be running and working most effectively, you have to be in this place of connection, you have to practice the connection, you have to have the reception on your phone, be in a position where your reception, where you were able to receive what God is saying to you, the directions that he's giving to you, the places that he's positioning you so that you can respond the, where he is leading.

In response to your question about how do one of these habits, how can I break one of these habits down? If I think about the second habit of positivity, which is that you convert the limit into the opportunity, if you believe and you trust, and you have that unshakeable faith, that because your GPS is connected, you are positioned exactly where you are supposed to be. Then your mindset will be this position of challenge I am here for a purpose, I am here for a reason, and it is meant to help me to confer this situation into something that serves me, because God would not have put me here if it were not an integral part of the journey that I am on and so let me extract from this situation that may seem dismal and discouraging and the feeding. I know without a doubt that there is something in here that positions me to take the next step on the path and this journey in. So let me pivot into the frame of mind that I can identify exactly what this point is supposed to represent and how it further advances me along my journey. When you know that without a doubt, that is how you practice that habit of positivity. Number two, that then positions you to then take the next step on that journey towards the destination.

Dr. Charles Anderson:

So, tell me, there was, I think just last week you were talking about a time when you were trying to make your way back to moms or something like that? What was that story again?

Dr. Oneeka Williams:

Okay, so I will finish off with the story where I started, which was that I was going to go home via route that I had come from my mom's home. I put it in the GPS and it gave me another set of directions, which was a shorter, which was, let's say 25 minutes, but it seemed as if it was taking me backwards to go forwards. So, I decided that it didn't make sense and that I was going to go my own way that I had initially thought and as I started on the path of going back towards my mom's home, the GPS time extended. So it meant that instead of me getting to my destination in 25 minutes, had I followed the God positioning system. It had now extended to 31 minutes and so I began to see that I should have followed the God positioning system. I found myself even kind of getting a little bit turned around, like, not even knowing, like I'm trying to get to mom, I'm trying to take another way to get there. I found myself getting a little bit discombobulated and the GPS kept resetting, but it kept directing me back to the other path. It kept directing me better. So every time I made a wrong turn, it kept bringing me back it kept giving me the direction to get back on track to that shorter route and isn't that what God does with us many times?

Dr. Charles Anderson:

Well, it's interesting. Cause you talked about the whole reception, right? I mean being open and that's why, yeah now I understand even better the importance of the pauses, right? Main part of it is, you know, resetting how many times we had our cell phone with like one bar and you turn it off and on, and then you get three bars because it's picking up on a different satellite, and that's why these pauses are so important because in those moments you need to have the opportunity to reset. Without that, it becomes so easy to start changing one's direction. That makes sense!

Dr. Oneeka Williams:

And there you have it folks! This is the positivity pause today. We have been talking about the GPS, the God positioning system and the takeaways are, we have to believe, we have to trust we have to have faith along the journey as we are directed in ways that may not make sense to us. We have to set our reception, we have to listen, and we have to take these pauses where we are more connected and along the path, even if we encounter the challenges and the hurdles and the obstacles that may not make sense to us know that those are meant to serve us. There is purpose in those that help us to be strengthened and help us to develop skills that will serve us best when we do get to our destination.

 As we have made this comparison between Waze and the God positioning system, there are so many parallels that speak to how God sets up these divine appointments, sets up these specific encounters along our journey. That if we would only listen, connect, and follow his direction, instead of trying to go our own way, and we use the habits of positivity and what we believe, we make sure that we are pausing to reset. We will find that as we encounter things that on our journeys, that seemed to be, that are hard, that are challenging we can have the confidence to know we aren't positioned exactly where we're supposed to be. Then we can use our positivity framework to extract the good that is supposed to be related to where you are on particular point in your journey.

So, thank you for taking this time with us. Thank you for pausing. Please continue to reflect on these during the day and during the upcoming week. As you think about your GPS, we hope that this opportunity to just take some time to redefine your GPS, to recharge reset before you resume, really gives you that spirit of energy, that confidence, that belief that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, and that all will be well. God bless you!