One Small Positive Thought
Good morning and happy Monday, Friends!
I’m sorry I missed you last week! Sometimes it’s hard to sort out all the things in my own mind and just write the post I need to write. So I took a week off and guess what? It was okay. I didn’t beat myself up about it. Life happens and things get messy and making it harder to navigate by beating yourself up doesn’t do any good. So here we are. Sorry I missed you and happy to be back with you today!
So, you may know this from previous posts, but, back in 2013 when I first starting blogging in a positive way I was really struggling to get through school. I was drowning in 5 classes, and unable to give each one the attention it deserved. On top of that I was working and trying to have a bit of a social life. It was University after all! Let’s just say that things piled up swiftly and it was a negative downward spiral from there. School is hard, friends. There is a lot of pressure and stress to do well. You’re paying big bucks after all, it better be worth it right? Right. Well, kind of.
Nothing is worth your mental health. Nothing. So I knew things needed to change. For starters 5 classes was ridiculous and I stand by this to this day. I cut it back by 1 course and that gave me so much more time to focus properly on the remaining 4. It felt terrible to drop a course and “admit defeat”. It felt like I’d failed. But you know what I actually did? I put up a boundary. And that is not a failure, that’s a win.
So I dropped a class, I started my new blog “Books & Things”, which you can still go read if you want to, I started looking into the exchange program for the following year. I needed something exciting to motivate me. Something to look forward to; a little sparkle of joy. Going to school abroad was IT. I highly recommend this to any students out there. It absolutely changed my life.
I also stuck positive quotes all over my room. I still have them to this day. They are pasted on the wall in my office and I see them all the time. Firstly, I adore quotes. Second, it’s the easiest way to put a new thought into your head when you can’t quite shake those negative ones.
This, to the right, is my favourite one. And it’s the exact one I have printed that hangs on my wall.
There is no way to read this and not have a positive thought. Just reading the words “Positive thought” makes me smile. It’s like a hug. A small reminder that you’ve got this and it will be okay. Not every day is good, but there is good in every day.
So I filled my room, head, and heart with positive messages. Whenever I get into a funk of some kind I always remind myself to start the day with a positive thought and end the day with gratitude.
With all the learning, and unlearning, that I’m doing, I try to make my first thought in the morning “It’s going to be a good day!” I follow this with “How am I going to do good today?” and by this I mean, how am I going to put good out into the world today. How am I going to make a difference for me and for others. And then, at the end of the day, check in with yourself. What was good about your day? And what good did you put out into the world?
This is so important because you’re telling your brain what to focus on. If you focus on the positive things your brain will be drawn to them. It will search for them. And likewise if you focus on the negative. That is what your brain will find.
Don’t get me wrong this takes effort, intention, and action. You have to be mindful of your thoughts, catch them, stop them, reign them in, and then actively change them. Your brain is powerful, but you can do it. You can change them.
I challenge you to take a breath and say out loud “It’s going to be a good day”. Watch how incredibly powerful this thought can be and seek out those small positive things throughout your day.
That’s all for today. Remember that when things get tough, the best thing to do is talk about it. That truly was my first step. I called my mum and talked about how I was feeling. So find someone to talk to. The weight is halved when you do.
As always, be gentle with yourself,
Katrina
xo
