Writing things on rocks, or artwork, or anything at all is a very powerful neurolinguistic device! It keeps the word and concept booted up somewhere in your brain. Writing words like ‘luck’ on a rock is a great idea, because we seek what we find, and I believe if you look for good luck you find it! It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Its fun to try this out on your kids too. But that’s another blog post.

This post is a vignette about my former white board and what it taught me about words you see in writing staying in your brain forever. Visual memory + written word = powerful brain candy.

‘There is a snapware thief…

in the building…

somewhere’

I worked at a place where we all had whiteboard inside our cubicles fashioned so everyone walking by could see. The above is the phrase my coworker had written on her board for months. You can’t look at a word without reading it, so I read them. And I processed them, four or five times a day, everyday when I’d walk past her cubicle to get to mine.  ‘There is a snapware theif… in the buidling.. somewhere’ One night I was sitting on my couch and found myself muttering ‘there is a snapware thief… in the building… somwhere’ (I always paused at the ellipses while mentally reading it). What was happening to me? I didn’t want to pay attention to this, but there it was, clogging up my brainspace. And so I got pissed that her word worm had permanently crept into my brain!

Everytime I walked by it I felt bad. I felt bad for her dishes, and bad that i had to suffer along with her, even though the dish incident actually occurred before I was employed there. So I finally confronted her. ‘Shirley! Why don’t you write something new on your board!’ and a spirited convo ensued about how she was still genuinely upset, many moons later, about how someone had stolen her dishes. I learned a few things from this conversation. 1) snapware is tupperware, its expensive and those who love it can’t do without it 2) some people can hold a grudge a really long time 3) getting her to erase this was not going to be a one conversation thing.

So I decided to control what I could, which is what was written on my own board. My cubicle was on the way to the bathroom so I felt it was a community service to gift my coworkers with some awesome ear worms. So I would write things like ‘Smiles inc’ and guess what, people would smile at me! One day I wrote ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy!’ which is of course also a catchy song lyric. I  noticed things. Fun coworkers would sing or whistle when they walked by. The old guy who talked your ear off would be on the topic of  happiness (rather than who left dishes in the sink, etc). On bad days I’d write lyrics that seemed upbeat but were actually secret cries for help. This also amused me and helped me get out of a fun. One day I wrote ‘I was looking for a job, and then I found a job!’ which is another song lyric (Morrissey, yay!) which follows with ‘and heaven knows I’m miserable now.’ This is kind of an inside joke with me and a friend, about how some people just can’t be happy in any circumstance! It was a reminder to myself that I’d really wanted this job, so don’t be a downer. It also just made me happy to be salty for a minute. Most people thought I was happily working that day, and I totally found two new tribe member coworkers when they gave me the wink and the nod as they passed by. I handed out candy too. Highly recommended activity for keeping happy at work. Or anywhere really. Just hand out candy like a mom with a purse.

Finally Shirley asked me what was up with my board, and all the daily whitticism.  I told her the truth about her snapware earworm, and to be honest it is still permanently etched into my brain. Hence this article. I offered to buy her a complete new set of snapware if she erased it. She finally had mercy on my mortal soul and erased her board! I quit that job some months later, and don’t have a white board anymore. So now I write things on rocks.

I have rocks all over the porch and garden that say ‘well calm’ to remind me that we heal when calm, and to not get too fight or flighty. Its also a pun for ‘welcome’ and I find brain teasers like this get stuck in my head even more! They are shiny and fascinating and whimsical. Some of my favorites are ‘Zen and Zeal, Lovey Lucky, and Do You.’ Others are thoughtfully artsy, like ‘Crave Brave’ and ‘Health Wealth’, with health over the wealth, which of course lends itself to metaphor. I paint these rocks bright happy colors and gift them to friends. Sometimes I let them choose what they want to attract into their lives, other times I will have made one especially for them, to attract what I think they would enjoy.

One of my all time favorites is ‘will work 4 love’. When we love others, we do WORK for them, its the ultimate love letter! Perhaps we go to work and get money to house them, perhaps we clean and cook for them, or drive them around, wipe their chin when they have mustard, but most people do the work they do for the ones they love, without people to love and work for life is empty. I think all of our labor should be ‘labors of love’ working to strengthen who and what we do like in this world. And with that I sign off to grab a paint brush for my new rock ‘Labor for Love’

So go write some stuff down in an artsy visual way, place it around where you are everyday, and the seeds for your new brain candy will be planted! You will scan the universe fulfiling the prophecies you declare! So go ahead, conjure up some joy, some art, some work, whatever floats your boat! Find a thought that mkes you smile, write it on some rocks, and enjoy the yummy thoughts!