Tag: positive

new beginning or just a new mindset?

~ NewBeginnings ~ Leave a comment

I guess it’s timely that I am trying to add a blog post at the end of January. I’m pretty predictable when the New Year rolls around.. and more so, February. I will say though, most of what’s on my mind right now, isn’t related to New Beginnings. Or maybe I’m just not seeing it that way.

Per usual, I am word vomiting something I am feeling in case any one of you out there might feel or possibly experience the same. There’s a spiritual page I love on IG but don’t follow, or like posts, for a reason. I want to believe that if this person shows up on my feed it’s meant to be. With a lot of spiritual people out there, you never know if the messages are based on truth or views. And I will say, the average “likes” are around 5k. For a verified account in this current-day social media state, that isn’t a lot, but also 5k people thinking this message is for them, might make it unrealistic for me? And then I think – there are 8 billion people in the world.. 5, even 6k people isn’t even 1% of the population. So in a realistic sense. I’m sure a couple of people in every country are experiencing similar situations like divorce, grief, happiness, etc.. so I want to believe these people are meant to see the message that day also and we are healing or thriving together. One fact in life is that although we do not experience anything the same way, there are always similarities, and sharing those experiences helps us learn different ways of understanding said situation. I, for one, love a good perspective I may not have thought of.

So, who out there has ever had a moment of self-reflection and realized.. OMG. TSwift was right, IM THE PROBLEM, ITS ME. Not that I think I’m a problem per se, but I had a moment of: OMG. I am NOT as positive as my outside self shows to people. Last weekend, in the 11th hour, I booked a flight to see my bestie on the eastie, lol. And her mom-self was in shock and surprise when she learned that I negative self talk… ALL THE TIME. Even as recent as that moment getting picked up from the airport, I was “confirming” thoughts in my head. It was a weekend very much needed, and we came out with a new mantra since the last one we thought of: Life is too short not be f*cking excited!

This “new” mantra is more calming, lol. It started with me, on the plane, reminding myself that life changes literally every moment. The past 3 years have been the best and worst reality check of that. Whether that’s death, a new job, a new person, a car accident, weather canceling an appointment… Big or small, there are moments that change the trajectory of our lives constantly. And I recall a post from my blogs-past – me talking about how: tomorrow your life can change, and it is the most exciting, yet scary thing to really realize. Because people break up, people die, people get injured, people lose jobs, natural disasters happen.. lots of scary things. Yet at the same time, in these same moments, people also fall in love, finally have the baby they’ve been trying 8yr for, get new jobs, win the lottery, move across the country…

The reality is, knowing that life can change any moment, we can either be scared or hopeful. There is so much possibility even in the next 10min. And if we’re trying to focus on the positive here, with any hardship, there is always a small light, no matter how hard it is to see. So I explained to my bestie, that I have been saying to myself the entire flight here: “Stay Hopeful not Scared.” We talked about this concept almost all weekend – she’s a saint I tell you ❤ And in one wonderful moment, she says to me – “how about we make this even more simple: I am Hopeful. Make it an affirmation. I’m not trying to be, I want to be, I am.” Her additional rationale on this is, even though the second part is NOT Scared, the last word I’m saying is still: Scared. And just like telling a 5yr old NOT to run, all they hear is the RUN.

So in this, we started saying: I am Hopeful. I’ve been saying it a lot. But I’m having a hard time with it honestly. I did get one of my associates at work to jump on this Hopeful bandwagon, and I can only imagine they too, might be having a hard time believing it also. And this here is where my sad, eye opening moment from this current weekend came from. I say positive things all the time – been challenged as a “toxic positivity” person even. And this weekend I thought: “I’m a fraud!” LOL. Seriously though, I talk such a game of staying open, allowing God, or the universe to guide us, yet while no one is looking, I say the most terrible things to myself (annddd my eyes just welled up typing that). I have literally said to myself in the past 2 weeks: No wonder no one loves me, I barely love myself. << and this moment I literally sat there questioning my 5 years (yes FIVE) of singledom and being like: HAVE I DONE NOTHING to heal myself?! Yet, I know for a fact, I am not the same person today that I was even 2yr ago, so Yes, I have learned and grown.. but why can’t I see it lately? And if my thoughts are truly this low, am I even capable of creating or attracting positivity again? Is this why I find myself “struggling” so much lately?

And then like all things.. last night, actually.. eyes wide open, I thought: “How long has this been going on?” I definitely know it’s been a while, I’ve kept these negative thoughts in my brain for years.. and I always notice when I am able to shift the perspective because life does in fact change. It feels safer, I do feel hopeful in those moments. They just don’t seem to stick lately. It’s been years since I’ve had a moment like this… last time I was 20-something, and I was literally looking in a mirror at like 3am and saying to myself: “This is not what I want my life to be like.” Granted, those days and “failures” are much different than today’s lol, so I shouldn’t really compare the two, but the feeling hits just as hard. It’s the realization of: “I’m doing this to myself.” << which again is not exactly positive self-talk, and here we are.

I guess my point in all this is – Its ok to find yourself at a crossroads, to question your motives, rediscover your reality, as often as you need to. I just hope we all use these moments to reflect and actually make change. Because although we cannot control what happens TO US, we can control how we react and any actions we take. Self-reflection is uncomfortable, I know a lot of people who don’t, or can’t do this. It forces us to remember our weaknesses, who wants that?! But it is also a catalyst for growth. And no matter what you believe, I think one thing we can agree on is that, most fullfilment comes from growth and change.

So if y’all are struggling out there similarly, know you are never alone. Even if it’s only me who seems to understand this, it’s more than 0. We can be the <1% together. And I hope for you, as I do for myself, that we are able to dig ourselves back to hope – like for reals – and believe it. Believe that we are worthy of good. We are the only ones who can change our minds.

till next time.. ❤

the countdown begins

~ NewBeginnings ~ Leave a comment

How ironic that the 31st is a Friday.. this challenge is also helping me get through the week!

2 things here:

  1. I finally finished the Positive Psychology book. The last few pages spoke about the workplace and how managing in a more “positive” mindset creates progress and success. It went into a reminder that as humans we all have different strengths, and to function properly in the workplace, one must manage according to those strengths. The book ended with a recap and another reminder that in life, this theory of Positive Psychology doesn’t mean you can’t be sad. It doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. It also doesn’t meant that just because you are thinking positive all wonderful things will come. It’s an ongoing study of how we think and see things. And in that study it shows much better outcomes on a positive mindset (even during times of tragedy or sadness) versus a negative one. Also in that as humans, we are prone to default to the negative, which creates a sort of “reason” or excuse to things, rather than ownership and understanding. Overall, I liked it, and am a believer. Interestingly enough though, having the workplace be a subject towards the end of the book, brings me to my next point.
  2. Work is creating health changing stress. I finally got my check up for my wildly break-dancing heart and found once again, it is all stress induced. My Dr. literally said to me, “No I’m serious, Drs orders on going to Yoga. You need it.” My only thought was, can I get that in writing!? I would love to be able to leave on time – without feeling like the weight of my job isn’t about to crush me – just to be able to make it to a class with a tiny bit of motivation left. It was sort of comforting to know that at least this isn’t like a cholesterol issue or something a little more scary that may have been created. I am still waiting on blood work also, so we will see what that tells us.

So here’s to the first day of my last week in this blog challenge. With Monday under my belt, nothing can stop me now! Except maybe terrible blood results, lol 😐

Time to go decompress and try to meditate to slow this sporadic thumping in my chest.

 

❤

trying to stay positive

~ NewBeginnings ~ Leave a comment

So I’m reading this book: Positive Psychology by Hans Henrik Knoop. It’s a small, short read, I’m just about half way done and I just about an hour ago – with snack breaks lol.

I really like the concept of building our lives with a positive narrative vs our natural gravitation to the negative. Because isn’t so true that no matter how “good” things are we still worry about the bad? I am definitely one of those people. It’s like a Murphy’s Law complex of ‘whatever can happen, will happen’. And I do joke on occasion of ‘this is why I can’t have nice things’. Because for me, it’s more so when something “good” happens, I begin to wait for the counter bad effect.

And I am a positive person by nature, mind you. I like to think of myself as a Positive-Realist. I always see both/all sides of any, and all situations, but I almost always lean on the side of the positive. But this book makes you think beyond that. I heard a little about it before I started reading, as I borrowed this from my best friend.. One section in particular that I couldn’t wait to read about was health. And how when you are sick.. really your body is healthy because it is working to fight whatever virus or bacteria is in your system.

It’s funny, because when I posted my “sick” post a few days back, I had already heard of this idea from my friend, and wanted to mention that in the post. But I didn’t want to keep elaborating on that in a post that wasn’t relevant. But since I’m talking about this neat little book, let’s dive in for a hot sec. I honestly thought this idea was the best example of Positive Psychology.

So you are sick.. and the auto-feeling = miserable. I of course am at fault as well. But imagine being aware of sickness.. yes it is uncomfortable, but beginning your thoughts on: “Thank you self for being well enough to fight whatever nasty is in me”. And because I had heard this idea prior, I did take a moment to tell myself, “ok self, fine I’ll allow this one-nostril thing because you are fighting and that means you are working properly”. And literally for a moment, I was like, a little proud of myself! Lol – because I then continued my thought process into how I take care of myself, and do my best to stay healthy. I eat well 95% of the time, (let’s be real, weekends don’t count) and although a little off the wagon lately because I manage stress poorly, I am normally active, whether running, yoga, or volleyball. So I thanked myself for taking care of me, and providing my body what it needs to keep fighting.. because as we know, bodies shut down a lot, and if my immune system decided not to fight one day, I would be in a very different situation here. In the end, it did provide a moment of seeing things on the bright side, so-to-speak.

Part of that last point though, brings me to my terrible stress. As mentioned, eating-wise I always give myself a break on the weekends. Usually it’s just one day to be honest, but I still give myself a break, because everything is wonderful in moderation – especially ice cream 🙂 And although I like to coin myself as the ‘worlds best stress eater’, my stress effects me more in my active state. I am hoping this book goes into that somewhere with the positivity, and maybe I’ll do a follow-up once I finish, which most likely will be tomorrow. So here, I am trying to think ‘positive’ in regards to stress.. or is my stress due to not being positive?! That’s possible, because stress is a negative reaction. Hmm.. All I know is that I need a check up because my heart palpitations are back, I need to see my chiropractor, and I need yoga.

In all, I am enjoying the study of Positive Psychology, and literally, the book is like 56 pages, so if you can, find it and give it a glance. I definitely recommend this book to the masses especially if it can help our society’s thought process. Stay Positive my friends.

 

🙂