How are your thoughts helping you today?
How are they helping others?
The very definition of positivity is being “constructive in intention or attitude”.
Synonyms for positivity: useful, productive, helpful, worthwhile, beneficial, effective…
If the word positivity is too broad or sharp to incorporate into your thoughts given your current mood today that’s cool. Try substituting one of the others and get after your Sunday.
Deal?
You got this.
More to come,
Tanya B.
It is.
Work.
But if you knew the benefits of positive thinking, you’d never have a negative thought ever, ever again! – Said someone, I’m sure.
Ok, c’mon… that’s not entirely true because you’re human. You’ll experience or even cause, negativity. I can tell you though the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, I’ve spent consecutively thinking positively have yielded the most amazing outcomes! From blissful happiness, better health, awesome news, less stress, new friends, dream jobs, more money, lower debt, different homes, reliable vehicles, to fantastic opportunities – the list goes on!
Thinking positively takes a conscious amount of mental effort every day. Nah, every minute of every day.
Wait, you have enough “work” just to make it through a full 24 hours, right? Keeping upbeat at your job and around family, having to exercise, dabble on social media (for fun or for work), hang with friends, socialize with colleagues, entertain clients, take care of the kids, the pets, feed everyone, find time for date nights, chores, and even make-nice with strangers… all of it = work. Now I’m encouraging you to exert extra energy toward being positive inside and out too? Yes! Yes I am.
Nothing good comes easy. You know.
So… here are four tips to think positively as often as you can:
You will regress. You will get thrown from the nest. Tossed from your comfort zone. Taken out of your routine. Making it down right impossible to be positive.
You are not alone!
All of the above happened to me regularly this month – especially the thrown from the nest part :).
Extensive travel, missing Brad, worried about the kids, anxious about different sporting activities, witnessed my daughter experience a new opportunity that made me proud, giddy and hyperventilate at the same time, strange physical environments, both girls receiving fantastic news, and *heaps* of unwanted, unsolicited, negativity from someone over the phone (while at a dance competition)… Breathe.
See
How
I did that…. #4.
It, July, has been challenging and fantastically wonderful at the same time. So many lessons. Opportunities for growth. Evolution. So much MORE WORK to do.
Positivity is work.
But the days are so much better if you think and stay, positive. Do it with me :).
More to come,
Tanya B.
It’s so easy to be judgmental, isn’t it? Easy to think the worst of a situation or person, jump to the wrong conclusion, misinterpret something you heard or read, neglect to tell someone about your expectations then get annoyed when their not met, impose your moral compass on others, and see only what you want to see.
All of it.
Easy peasy.
What’s harder, yet far more satisfying, is to let your ego and fear fall away, and listen. Listen to learn something. Listen to grow and evolve personally, sure. Listen to feel empathy for others? Yaaaass!
But, “people just annoy me” you say.
Oftentimes those triggers that piss you off are mirrors of your own behavior. It’s the universe’s way of showing you, “you”… A cue it’s time for growth. A sign you need to be more understanding of others, to better understand you.
Continuously want to be a better, more enlightened you. A more empathic you. This world needs more empathy. Less cynicism. More forgiveness. Less judgment. More peace. Less war.
Thursday thoughts – more to come,
Tanya B.
We’re on day 13 of being away from home. Four more days to go. It’s been so much fun and very rewarding!! But it’s also been challenging – as extensive travel can often be.
Sleep patterns are crazy, digestion is wonky, space is limited, there’s an undercurrent of longing/missing loved ones, deadline pressures, and centers are off-kilter. It’s a recipe of uneasiness!
If you’re traveling a lot this summer, and any of this sounds familiar, here are a few tips (and I needed these myself today)!
Make time to chill. To meditate. To appreciate you. To forgive you. To love you.
Not letting the “to-do’s”, “be here’s” and emotions run you is tough enough when you’re at home with your tribe, in your routine. Throw extended travel, unfamiliar places, and adhoc schedules into the mix and it’s all ego – all hooks – all the time.
Slow the pace. Breathe. Enjoy.
You are right where you are meant to be. Peace.
More to come,
Tanya B.
I’ve always been somewhat of a Curious George. Yearning to learn, uncover… understand. It’s no coincidence then, my life path has presented me with so very much to learn, uncover and understand. From personal circumstances like divorce and the death of loved ones, to bizarre encounters with ex-spouses or colleagues to major news events like historic, if not harebrained, Presidential elections :). It’s part of the reason I became a journalist in the first place. “Digging deeper” was my motto. But…
That kind of curiosity can kill the cat.
The judgment kind.
The, “my moral compass is better than yours” kind. It was Walt Whitman who wrote, “Be curious, not judgmental”.
Asking questions that make you smarter or more compassionate after hearing the answers – that’s the good kind of curiosity. Wanting to know why someone believes they can speak with dead people for example… especially when you know regardless of any answer they offer up you’re never going to accept it or understand it – in fact, you’re likely to be even more critical of them afterward – well, that’s just judgey.
I’ve gone down rabbit hole after rabbit hole in search of explanations for the unexplainable. The answers to why are so elusive or utterly ridiculous they lead to even more confusion, fired up frustration and inevitably … the negative clouds roll in. You lose your seat.
My thirst for answers or some psychological or L O G I C A L understanding of the proverbial “why” would have me spending hours and hours reading or on the computer googling and searching; diagnosing and judging. Putting (more) energy into suffering.
Why do people lie? Why do people spin the truth? Why do they manipulate? Why do they alienate? Why do they kill? To what end? What is their motive? What will they do next? Why did this circumstance unfold the way it did?
We may never understand their answers to why.
Full.
Stop.
The moment I shed my hankering to understand why someone did something, said something, believed something or why a situation unfolded the way it did, my entire life illuminated with positivity. Those intermittent clouds rolled right on out. Hold your seat. Ah positivity reigns!
How?
I flipped the curiosity toward me.
I began asking myself, “Why are you so offended by what someone else has done or said or believes? Why are you letting this circumstance lead you – hook you? Why are you being captured by negativity?”
I’ll pause there.
To allow for introspection.
Ask yourself why.
Be curious to get smarter. Better. Faster. Kinder. Not to judge.
More to come,
Tanya B.
Recent Comments