Before walking this path I let my feelings walk all over me. I would wake up, be angry that I woke up, and that set the tone for the entire day. I allowed my feelings and emotions to take control and each day it was like a runaway train where I just held on and tried not to fall off. And even when I tried to turn the day around, because I didn’t truly believe I deserved to it never really worked for long and then I was back in the shadows of my mind, but the truth was, and is, we all have the power to have a good day or bad day, we do, we just have to make the decision and make it so.
When I stepped on this path I’m on today and I was told that I could just decide to have a good day and it would happen, I thought that was crazy. Clearly people didn’t understand how bad my life was and what a piece of crap I was, but they insisted that what they said was true and I just had to put it into practice. My mind, at the start, was very rarely positive, especially at the beginning of my day, so the practice for me was focusing on the good, writing down the things I was grateful for in my life and myself. Sometimes I only came up with one thing, but it still counted, I put that piece of paper in my pocket and when I felt the shadows starting to come again I would take out that piece of paper and read it aloud. Just the act of doing that made the light come back. And, as I got better at it and my mind got clearer, that list began to grow, as did the light and positivity in my life. I also learned that to feel good I had to do good things for myself, I had to practice self-care, and do the things I needed to do every day to make sure I had the best shot at being my best self. For me that meant getting enough sleep, eating well, doing some sort of physical activity and connecting with a spiritual side to my life, those were the main ingredients to give me the best shot of having the best day. Another secret I learned was that even if the day does take a turn to the dark that I can infuse it with some light and turn my day back around, we all have that power, some days may be more difficult than others, and it may take some time, but it can be done. We are not victims of our own thoughts and feelings unless we choose to be.
During this time of uncertainty we can often have feelings that creep up, seemingly out of nowhere, to derail our day. If we’re not conscious of it those feelings may overwhelm us and even paralyze us if we let them, but it’s important to stay in touch with how we feel, and why we feel what we feel, many times those feelings can tell us things about ourselves and what we may be holding onto, those feelings of the past that we have not let go may be trying to drag us back to our past, where we don’t belong. Setting an intention of positivity, of staying present and in the moment, cuts those ties to the past, and if our mind wanders back there, we can acknowledge those thoughts, but not let them take over our day. We set the tone for our day, so make sure to set a good one. SLAY on!
SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you feel like you are bullied by your feelings and thoughts? Do you set an intention when you start your day? When you do are you able to hang on to that intention for the day? If not, what stops you? What intention do you set? Can you work harder on setting a positive tone for your day? What can you do? Work on pausing in the morning and consciously deciding to have a positive day, to look for the good in your life and where you can work to improve. When we focus on the positive we find more positive, and, if the negative creeps back in, pause again and work to get your mind back into a positive mindset, maybe shake it off, do something you enjoy, call a friend, but don’t let yourself stay stuck in the shadows of our mind.
S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you
State Of Slay™ 