Gratitute Challenge
If you follow me at all, you know that since I have finished my Master Life Cleanse Program in June, I have been writing 10 things I’m grateful for at the end of each day, and completing a minimum of one round of EFT. This is had made a huge difference in how I feel. I am peaceful, centered and balanced. Opportunities are being presented to me out of what I would think to be “no where” and I am incredibly happy, for no reason.
I have challenged all of my Authentic Self Newsletter subscribers to do the same.
The last 9 days I have been away. I was camping with my family in the woods. I love camping. I get to get away from everything. Leave the city, the responsibilities and the stress behind me to truly experience nature. It’s still, peaceful and quiet. It’s something I look forward to every summer. Of course, this meant that I was leaving behind all technology, and because I felt “away” from it all, I slacked off in doing my gratitudes and EFT.
I got home yesterday and decided that I was going to write 50 gratitudes. At first I doubted I could do it. I kept making deals with myself. If I could just get to 20, maybe 25, maybe 35. But I got to 50 relatively easily. Now this has as a number of “lessons” written into it:
- You never know unless you try
- Don’t discount yourself
- You can come up with an infinite amount of things to be thankful for if you truly try
I also have to admit that besides feeling really, really good after it was an excellent way to spend 30 minutes completely present in my life.
If you need a little bit of perspective in you life, or just need to re-connect with your authentic self, I highly encourage you to take 30 minutes out of your day and write down 50 things you are grateful for. You’ll feel so wonderful after you just might make it a habit!
You are not your thoughts
By Kimberly Englot
Our brains think constantly. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Now, if you’re anything like me you’re not very good at meditating. It’s very difficult to train yourself to empty your mind of thoughts.
I have tried. It takes a lot of practice. Some are able to do it. Some aren’t. I don’t bother any more because I’ve found an alternative method that serves me just as well, if not better!
My way to quiet my mind and notice the negative thoughts is to simply be aware of what is going on. You see, you are not your mind and you are not your thoughts. You are the being that can recognize your thoughts. Before you go…”I don’t have any thoughts in my head that I’m not aware of” I want you to realize that you’re thinking that very statement. That is the voice I’m talking about. I call it the inner critic (I also refer to it as the ego-mind). Use your conscious mind (the part that lives in the moment) to recognize your negative thoughts, and simply let them be. You don’t have to buy into them.
I used to have a very damaging inner critic. It was constantly saying things like, “Why do you even bother speaking. No one cares about what you have to say.” Then I discovered that people do care about what I have to say and I started to speak up! This obviously turned into my passion and career as an Authentic Life coach. Because I was able to notice that my inner critic was thinking that, I gained back control and was able to NOT believe it.
You are not your thoughts. You can’t control your thoughts either. At least not for any realistic time frame. You will only drive yourself crazy trying to control them. I like to believe that our brains are tuned into a higher frequency of the universe and thoughts pop in and out, and we have no way of knowing where they came from…much less be able to control them! I know I have some pretty crazy thoughts that come from out of no where! And many of my best ideas come to me when I least expect it. Actually as I am writing this blog entry I have no idea where the words are coming from. They are just popping into my head as fast as I am able to capture them by typing….I wouldn’t want to control that for the world.
Be conscious of your thoughts, but don’t try to silence them or control them. You are not your thoughts so you don’t have to be afraid of them anymore. Set yourself free!
