Thursday, March 8, 2012

Postive Thinking

it's something I'm definitely not good at...but it definitely goes a long way. I guess you could say I have a bit of Chicken Little syndrome..when things are going wrong I like to bundle it all together and pretend like the sky is falling. While I'm not a total negative nelly, I do find that when I dwell on the bad, it makes everything seem like it's this terrible dead end street.

So, these past couple weeks I've tried to take a new approach because it's become quite the drag to start off the day hating my drive to work, hating what I have to do that day, hating the chores at home that await me and the endless list of errands there always seem to be. My new little spin on positivity started with a yoga class a couple weeks ago. I've been practicing yoga for the past 2-3 years..typically 2-3 times a week. At the end of the class, we sit and place our hands at our heart center. Our teacher always says something before we wrap up the class with a big Namaste. She said something to the effect of instead of saying or thinking the negative things,  force yourself to spin it in a more positive light and see how it opens your heart to positivity.

The next morning  I sat in traffic swearing at the fact that I was going to be late, thinking about the tons of cases I had on that day, including a nightmare sex offender and gripped my steering wheel in frustration. Instead of thinking my usual....this day is going to SUCK big time...I put my positive spin on it...I said to myself as I white knuckle gripped the wheel...

Today will be a productive day
Today I will help out kids who are in trouble with the law
I will be busy and want to rip my hair out, but I will feel accomplished and proud when it is over.

yup..this might sound super cheesy and you might roll your eyes, but I've continued to do this everyday during my morning commute. It's amazing how my white knuckles on the steering wheel have eased up, how I haven't absolutely dreaded going to work and walking over to court everyday just by changing my mindset. It has really amazed me how these little positive affirmations on my drive into work direct me into a different mindset for the day. I've also noticed that my normal truck driver vocabulary seems to be less littered with the F bomb when I start my day off right...another little perk!

So..challenge yourself..the next time you start the reel of negative thoughts that start off with one little thing..like I'm having a bad hair day and inevitably turn into I hate my clothes, my make up came out like crap today and so on....try to instead focus on what's good vs. what's bad.

A great little site my sister turned me onto is www.dailyom.com
When life started to throw us a couple curveballs these past few months, my sister sent me one of the inspirational quotes from this site. If you sign up, every day you receive an email with a positive inspirational thought. My latest


"Your very own inner wisdom should be valued more than any other and will always guide you in the direction you need to travel."

So, in a world where so much is wrong, the economy sucks, everyone is losing their jobs and terrible things happen everyday...rise above and take control. Think POSITIVE...it really does go a long way!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for this. I've had a rough time getting up in the morning with a good attitude because of my job as well. It's amazing how your whole day can change just from forcing yourself to have a good outlook on the day.

    I hope things get a little less stressful for you this coming week. :)

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