I woke up this morning and instead of starting my day with my usual personal meditation time, I began scrolling through social media. Even though I tried to only see and read the positive postings those negative ones kept creeping into my vision. As the minutes turned into an hour I felt my mood become quite sour. I put my phone down and started going over some negative things that had happened this past week. My thoughts became darker and my mood sunk like a huge anchor to the bottom of a dark cold ocean.
What was going on with me? I didn’t want to feel like this. I wanted to be happy. The weather was beautiful, I had the whole day ahead of me, I was going to be surrounding myself with things that I loved to do. How was I going to change my attitude? How was I going to get back to being me?
I picked up my phone again hoping for something positive. A tweet came through and I had to make the effort to click the link to see the image since the words in the tweet just said “I posted a photo”. Then I read this: “I feel alive today because today is a blessing. In this moment, I can find misery or meaning, boredom or motivation. I can expand the hatred in the world, or I can amplify love. In all the chaos, I can find stillness and joy within. All is well, and nothing has to happen to “give” me more happiness in life. I simply choose to be happy now, to be grateful now, to be a source love and light for others. I am whole. I am ready. This is my day.” ~ Brendon Burchard
Now I had a choice; choose to be happy or continue to go down my dark road. Was it really that simple? I could hear the negativity trying to crawl into my brain telling me it was not possible to change my mind to be happy. Nothing is that easy. I fought the urge to stay dark. I started texting the photo quote to as many friends as I could think of. With each text I felt a bit better, I could feel something shifting in my mind and in my body. I kept sending texts. Soon people were responding with a thank you or a smiley emoticon. Something really did change. I did it, I changed my mindset and it was not hard!
Instead of focusing on me and my issues I placed my focus on others and wanting them to have a good start to their day. I love learning and growing moments and for me this was huge!
We all have our struggles in life yet we will always learn and grow from them if we allow ourselves to do so. Take the time to reflect on your past and the challenges you have faced. How did you grow? How or what did you change? Are you in a better place now? If you are living with a difficult time now I encourage you to reach out to others to serve. It does not have to be a huge thing, it can be as easy as a smile, a thank you note, or a positive picture quote. Become more aware of how your thoughts shift as you help others to feel good.
Make it an awesome day!