"A Little More Posituvité" is actually the name of a private journal I've been writing. I've only got a couple entrees, but it's my thoughts and feelings, the path I'm walking to become more optimistic.
I've been struggling with negativity and depression, to the point where it's been affecting my health. The patterns recycled. The carousel must stop. And I realized something, the base of my thoughts were affecting my mood.
"Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at
the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions
of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it
cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies
into circumstance." James Allen As a Man Thinketh, linked to a free ebook.
I've been trying to change my thoughts from negativity to posituvité (I changed the spelling, but it's so much fun to say!) But it's been difficult.
Then at the store I found the above clicker, packaged to promote positive clicking. Click with every positive thought! Track what you're thinking! Change your thoughts in the process!!
So yesterday I did it backwards, I clicked with every negative thought. 141! That's the final days tally. Of course there were several moments of "Mrararararararara" . . . which I didn't want to figure out click wise. And when you're "Mrarararararara" you're not in the mode to click anyway.
Then this morning I woke up miserable! Depressed! In an Optimal Grumbly mood.
My nieces found my new rubber stamps, which weren't cheap, and lost them! "Mrarararararararara . . . grumbly, grumbly, grumbly." They we're eating popcorn that ants are now devouring on the family room floor. "Mrarararararararara . . . grumbly, grumbly, grumbly."
I meant to start counting positive thoughts this morning, but I was sooooo grumbly that I wasn't in the mood. Then Steven found the stamps under the couch . . . And the ants? Steven said I should say in my mind "Thank you ants for being apart of this Earth's ecology."
That didn't happen.
I was halfway through that sentence when "Kill the ants!" chorused through my mind! And so I did.
But it is true, the way we think does affect our mood, attitude, being, and even circumstance. There are things we can't change, but we can change and control our thoughts. And now that I'm counting positive thoughts, emphases on the optimistic, I'm feeling better. 103 at this moment, and more to come before nightfall.
Life really is great!
104
The clicker is a brilliant idea Sarah! I remember when my parents were going through a divorce and one of my good friends at school was struggling with her mother having cancer (she ended up dying a few years later). We'd complain, laugh, almost cry (it was in the middle of class after all), and go through a hundred other emotions through the hard time. Somewhere in the middle of it all though, we figured out that feeling awful was just that--awful. So we gave ourselves that class period to talk out whatever we could (during the time we could of course) then as we went to our next class we'd say, "Today is going to be a good day" regardless of what was going on or how we had felt previous to that. It was amazing how something so small really did help us both feel like we could start over, be happy right then, and move forward instead of slip downwards. I bet we would have been all the more successful in being had we had had your wonderful idea to recognize the positive. Absolutely beautiful way to bring up your day :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Your story really is inspiring. Instead of "You are what you eat" it should be "You are what you think". Well, the eating part is important too, but it's amazing the power of thought. Makes me think of Zeezrom when he made himself sick worrying about his actions and the fate of Alma and Amulek. Our thoughts have a huge impact on more then we realize.
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