being positive
It's easy to be positive when things are easy. Just like it's natural to smile when something worth smiling for occurs. Unfortunately the same thing goes with negative moments. It's a default reaction to become angry, upset and resentful. Going into this week I knew it was going to be brutal. I mentally prepared myself to lose sleep, work late and take crying breaks in between. This post revolves around the idea of "choosing learning with love over learning with fear". This is something I've been reading in Gabrielle Bernstein's The Universe Has Your Back. Basically, if you need to learn a lesson through your situation, would you rather go through it with fear (cursing, complaining, negativity) or through love (keeping an open mind, being curious, looking on the bright side). It makes a lot of sense right; if you are going through something that's out of your locus of control, why bother adding negativity to the mix? This means no complaining, no cursing your professor, no snoozing, no wishing you were anywhere else. Why? because you're here and hating your professor, your boss, today's weather, traffic or 8:30am classes isn't going to magically make them disappear. When there's a million things you can't control the one thing you can always, and I mean always, control is yourself. Even when it doesn't feel like it, you're still in the drivers seat! You're always in the drivers seat. Not your anxiety, not your fears or your parents or your mind at 2am, but your truest self. Staying positive when you need it the most is like finding a lifeline in the middle of an ocean of chatter. You really have to look for it and you really have to believe it's there. I want to apologize just incase this post is super depressing, I usually write about something after it's passed and not when I'm in the middle of it. I guess this post is how you stay positive in real time.
Don't blame other people. Don't yell at people who are just caught in the cross fire. Just don't make it worse by saying things you don't mean. Instead don't say anything for now...
Deal with it- deal with whatever is causing you to be caught in a negative mindset. Allow yourself to fully deal with it, then let it go
Accept that this is where you are
But envision a better place- go to your happy place physically and figuratively
Be grateful that your acknowledging this and not harbouring negativity for days to come. You're making roadmaps of the way you think and react and only making it easier for yourself in the future
Listen to music on full blast
Know that this too shall pass
Allow yourself to be upset once then move one. Don't cry about the same old thing without making a game plan or else you're just moving in circles
Visualize your truest-happiest-most-successful self and hold on to that
Understand that you're not alone. Not to say that your feelings are invalid because it's universal but that there are more people who understand what going through then you can imagine
You got this! You got this! You got this!
Sleep well
Choose love over fear. Think with love and not fear. Spread love and not fear.
Take control by taking responsibility
Take it easy, it's just life- In yoga class, the other day, I bunch of us were getting frustrated with dancer pose and the instructor looked at us through the mirror in front of her and said "don't take it too seriously, it's just yoga" with a smile on her face and semi holding the pose herself.
...In yoga, as soon as you start getting frustrated in perfecting a pose, that's the moment you start to lose the whole purpose of being on the mat. I know that I didn't come to class to get stressed out then carry that through my day, and I won't allow myself to do so. Life is the same thing. Like my friend was telling me the other day "life/school is a game, sometimes you lose and other times you win". It's unpredictable and sometimes unforgiving. It doesn't always deal you the cards you want but that doesn't mean you stop playing. You don't stop showing up to class, you don't give into false beliefs, you don't self sabotage, you don't trash talk yourself, you don't compare to what others are doing. And you never burn down months or years of hard work because, the "you" right now in this moment (which is a small fraction of the life ahead of you) feels down. But instead I challenge you to take a step back and reconsider going down the path of anxiety and self destruction, of fear and of lies. Instead say yes to your truest self. The one that only speaks good things about you. Say yes to calling your best friend at midnight while ugly crying in the bathroom, say yes to letting it go, say yes to trying again tomorrow, say yes to that date, say yes to booking an appointment with a councillor. Say yes to what you need to stay or regain positivity, faith and all things love. Say yes to the "you" down the line that knows you can get through this and is just waiting for you to realize that too!
“In order to carry a positive action, we must develop a positive vision.”
-Dalai Lama