Our beautiful world is really going through it right now, isn’t it? There doesn’t seem to be an area of life that isn’t filled with anger, judgement and negativity. But then I had the most amazing conversation with some people this week at the meet and greet after the show at Flamingo Las Vegas. They had read my book “The Key is Love” and shared by choosing love they found peace in their lives. By being kind and letting go of “having to be right,” (even though they said they knew they were 😂) they moved forward. They realized holding on to this kind of negativity and anger destroyed their peace and even made them physically ill. But through these two simple choices, they were able to find peace and move on without being stuck in the drama.
Valerie, a dear friend of mine, who is also a brilliant therapist, (hey free advice! 🤣) shared an effective process for handling negative thoughts. She said “We all have positive and uplifting thoughts that are based in love and light or we have negative and destructive thoughts that are based in fear and darkness.” She then drew a box with arrows traveling inside, and said, “the square box represents our brain. As these thoughts come to us we choose which ones to keep and which ones to throw away. This is our great gift of agency—a simple choice!” We are in control and get to decide our emotional state. Talk to yourself the way you’d lovingly talk to your child. Remember, negative thoughts lead to darkness and will always lie to you and never give you joy, so THROW THEM AWAY!! On the other hand, positive thoughts make you happy and fill you with light so you feel good, keep these! This process is so simple but very effective!!! Sometimes when I am doing something new and challenging those negative, fearful thoughts come into my head telling me I can’t, it’s too much, or a million other destructive things. I’ve said it before we should never let anything create “our weather” and we really do create our emotional weather by how we think—so spiral upward in your thinking never let yourself spiral downward!
There can be many things or reasons that color our thinking, past experiences being one I’ve found challenging. A friend sent this quote the other day and I thought it was perfect for today’s post.
“Several years ago, when I first had the notion to write this book, I put a call out on my website for people to write to me about their Bad Childhoods, and how they got to a Good Life. I received many thousands of responses because the issue resonates on some level with just about everybody. I was interested to see the response to my question concerning what influence made the most positive difference in their lives. The number one answer was God and religion; the number two answer was some person who believed in them, stood by them, and demanded they be their best selves.” (Bad Childhood Good Life, Laura Schlessinger, p. 38, 200)
I didn’t have therapists growing up to get through the pain of my abuse as a child and I never shared it with anyone till later in my life. My peace came from the example and unconditional love I received from my best friend, my Mom. She helped me to love reading and learning about God who truly is the source of all love and strength. If you’re struggling, discouraged or looking for someone in your life to stand by you and believe in you, don’t EVER forget God is there for you and you’ll never ever have to feel alone again! #GodIsTheAnswer #SundayMessage