The Power of Positive Thinking
Are your thoughts full of visions of the future or are they focused on yesterday? Will negative thoughts and worrying add one moment or one day to your life? Not exactly. Our brains are records of our past and our emotions are attached to those records. So it’s easy to get stuck there and to place that record and emotions on repeat. Now that you know it is normal, we need to consciously be aware of our thoughts and emotions and combat our negative thoughts. We need to unanchor ourselves from the past and focus on a positive future. Change your thoughts to be positive thoughts. Align your feelings and emotions to your positive thoughts. See yourself in that positive state.
Surround Yourself with positivity –
This doesn’t mean that by doing this, bad things won’t happen; don’t pretend everything is OK. it’s about how you respond to the actions around you or towards you. This may be one of the most difficult actions to me; to not take action or calibrate how I respond. When I am successful at managing my response to “not the best news,” it leads me down a successful result. In March of 2020, I did not expect to receive news that the lump I felt in my left breast was due to aggressive breast cancer. In fact, I was joking with the nurse who called to give me the news that they had me waiting and I was fairly in a good mood. When she told me, I had to have her repeat it because I do was too busy laughing and multi-tasking with work. When she repeated the news, I went into “work-mode” where I started looking for something to write with and asking questions on what are the best next steps. There were no tears or disbelief, but what do I need to do to overcome this. By that afternoon, during the 2020 pandemic, I raced to the genetics counselor which is the first step to determine what was the best treatment for the diagnosis. I surprised my husband and said that I had more emotions and cried when I found out my second child was a girl. I giggled and said, well I need this cancer out of my body, I have two young girls to take care of! I had no time to think about dying, I had too much to live for! By the way, when telling my parents, siblings, and aunt, I preface the conversations, that I only want positive thoughts and reaction when talking to me or about cancer and me. The only person who did not listen was my aunt. As soon as I told her, I think she put me in the grave with all the screaming and crying she did. I told her we would talk later when she could do so without talking and when she starts thinking positive about this situation. (The callback when she thought she was ready was no better…lol)
Do it Anyway!
Don’t feel like it, do it anyway; Take care of problems versus hoping that they will disappear; For example, you may not feel like journaling 3 things that you are thankful for today, however, do it anyways. Or, maybe you do not feel like saying sorry or talking through a situation with your significant other right now but if it’s the right thing to do, do it anyway. What are things you can put in place to help with the transition to the “Just Do It” transition? Don’t just do it to get through today or to transition from your yesterday, but for your promising tomorrow. Take control of your today and set up your tomorrow. Yesterday was only a lesson for your today to prep for tomorrow but we WILL NOT stress about it. Do you have a need for an accountability partner? Someone you trust to give you either sound advice or that push you need without judgment when you need it? What about a support group to remind you that your feelings are normal and that it is important to keep moving even when you do not feel like it. The moments when you need to step outside yourself or the self that wants to stay put to be the “Do it Anyway” You! Today, I challenge you to eat the big elephant one bite at a time. Do it little by little. You are here to get it done!