Daily Affirmations, These Things are HARD!
A couple of months ago a good friend sent me “The Five Minute Journal”. I have fallen head over heels with this. Well maybe not head over heels, but seriously it’s a simple concept that changed my outlook on how I approach a day.
Each day starts off with 3 things “I am grateful for…”, identifying 3 things that make today great, and 2 daily affirmations. Ugh! Daily affirmations, these things are HARD! I’m getting better at it, but for me when I started doing this it evoked a strong feeling of discomfort.
For today’s post, I’ll share one of yesterday’s affirmations. “Positive thoughts create positive energy”. While I wish I could say I thought good thoughts all day, the reality is I live with a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. God help me (seriously). We planned a day of early 4th of July celebrations with family, but we had to get out of the house first. I joked with my neighbor that I’m surprised she didn’t hear me from her house. While my husband and I busted our tail trying to pack up food, make sure the house was picked up and get ourselves put together, the boys decided to fight and irritate each other as well as us. They yelled at each other, my husband I and yelled at them. Each moment brought increasing layers of hostility. I’ll even share that one moment I had a small anxiety attack where I couldn’t breathe. Somehow, we pulled it together and made it out of the house resembling a happy family.
Once we made it to the lake, “Positive thoughts create positive energy” started to kick in, unconsciously. The sun was shining. We setup our chairs in the cool lake water and soaked up the early July sunshine. The weather was perfect. We were surrounded by family, taking a day out of our varied busy lives for a moment of connection. Although we are family, we are a large family (my husband is one of seven children), we have countless nieces and nephews who now have significant others. Having most of us together is a rare opportunity these days. We did our best to sit and chat with as many people as possible and catch up on life and the different activities happening within each of our families. Before we knew it the day was over, at least this leg of it was. We said our good-byes and drove home to begin the evening activities.
“Positive thoughts create positive energy”. My husband has never been one for fireworks. I enjoy them. I had made plans with friends to enjoy our local town fireworks. As simple as this sounds, this was pretty big for me. I didn’t sign the entire family up for this outing. I signed me up. My neighbor and good friend asked if I had planned on going to the fireworks. Why, yes! Yes, I will go. We made it home from our day trip just in time to meet up with friends. I met up with our neighbors and one of my sons came along. It was a beautiful evening. I enjoyed the time with friends, the town fireworks and watching my son spend time with his friends. Friendships are important. They are important for mental health and emotional connection.
Why do I share this? Why have I chosen to blog, to be vulnerable and put my thoughts into words to share with you, my reader? I share because I want to take the taboo out feeling less then. Less than enough, less than in control, less than, you fill-in the blank. It’s ok to feel less than. It’s important to find the strength to move out of the less than. Life is not perfect. Life is often times hard. No matter how easy some make it look, we all go through it the self-doubt. Reader, I encourage you to be brave and push past the self-doubt, get out of your head. You can do it!
“Positive thoughts create positive energy”. What positive thoughts do you want to focus on today? Share int he comments section below.
