This morning my mind decided it was time for us to take a sojourn into the Land of Self-Judgment and Inner Dissatisfaction. Yes, Halloween arrived early for my brain, and so it was ghosts and goblins up in my cranium, a dark and stormy night internally while Sacramento experienced and bright and early morning. I didn’t even have a good costume! In fact, I was the sacrificial lamb about to get slaughtered…
Fortunately, I’m experienced enough nowadays with my head not to get completely lost in it. Well, after awhile anyway. I ended up at the cafe, where I am wont to bliss out, and I’m happy to say that this helped me take a sharp right turn and eject myself out of the fiendish rat maze of negativity I found myself in.
I started by doing my daily reading, the Grant biography. Then I began writing. Inspiration hit, and I decided to make a list of a lot of the things that are going well in my life. Here’s a partial list:
- Running
- Reading
- Teaching
- Blogging
- General Writing
- Money Management
- My Relationship
I wasn’t quite so brief when I wrote. Instead, I wrote a paragraph about each item, elaborating on what was going well and how this felt. All in all, I quickly produced a satisfying list of positive aspects of my life.
It occurred to me that this list stood as undeniable evidence to counter the negativity. No matter what derogatory nonsense my brain might spew at me, there in front of me was indisputable proof that I’m pretty cool 🙂 In fact, doing this exercise signaled a shift for the whole day, and I’ve experienced much calmer mental skies ever since.
I’m sharing this with you, because everyone has the ability to appreciate. If you look for something to appreciate, you will find it. Appreciation is a high form of vibration. Believe me, it is good for you to appreciate. Appreciating yourself is especially powerful.
So many of us are so hard on ourselves. In those moments of self-judgment, how often are we focused on the things that make us awesome? Probably not enough. In fact, if we took the time to look for those things, I think it would be hard for the negativity to last. I have found that negativity tends to flourish when you aren’t aware that it is operating. Like dark crevices of a house, it thrives off neglect. When you shine the light of awareness, and especially when you counter the negativity with a reminder of your value, it has no where to go.
Appreciate Yourself!