When I was the owner of Swann House, one of the most frequent comments I heard from guests when entering my inn was "This house has really great energy." While hearing this always made me smile, it also served to confirm my belief in the power of energy; energy is indeed palpable. One of our biggest challenges as owners is maintaining positive energy, both in ourselves and in our staff members. Guests can sense when tensions run high just as they can feel it when things are rosy.
So how to maintain a positive aura on a sustained basis? We can start by noticing and controlling our reaction to outside circumstances. No matter what the crisis du jour, we get to choose our reaction to it. We can choose how to react when our partner is grumpy and we can choose how to react when we get a negative review. We get to choose how to react when a commode overflows. Although no amount of preventive maintenance will prevent a guest from flushing a bouquet of daisies down the commode, we do get to choose how to react when the plumber breaks the news, just as he hands you his big fat bill. When this happened at Swann House, I imagined the conversation that must have preceded said flush and had a good chuckle. "Daisies! You cheap s.o.b...at least you could have blah blah blah..."
How, exactly, do we teach ourselves to control our reactions? When attempting to alter any behavior, it is helpful to understand the brain's negativity bias. Here is a snippet from Dr. Rick Hanson, a psychologist whose work I admire.
Up Your Inn's Energy Quotient
by Mary Lotto Ross