WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Hello there.  Happy Monday.  Did you have a lovely weekend?  Mine was perfect and I hope yours was too.  Are you ready for your week?  Let's agree to make it a great one.

An important thing that we can do to destress is, we have to pay attention to what we are thinking.  It would be totally magnificent if everyone took responsibility for what they were thinking and think better, more positive thoughts.

We are the only thinker of our thoughts, we should take responsibility for those thoughts, and teach our children, who are our future, that they can take responsibility for their thoughts, as well.

To take responsibility for my thoughts is part of my philosophy of life.

Every thought we have we are thinking towards faith or fear, and we are thinking positive, or negative thoughts about ourselves, others, and life.  When we have thoughts of faith, we are thinking positive, and when we have thoughts of fear, we are thinking negative.

When we rule our thoughts, we rule our feelings.  I know that this is so!  I know it because I have learned to know that when I do not feel good, I can, do, and will move towards feeling better by thinking better thoughts.  I am not perfect, but I sure am getting better at it, because practice, my friend, makes us better, and sooner or later we will get close to perfect.

When we feel anger, our thoughts are full of fear.  When we feel anxious, our thoughts full of worry about our fear.  When we feel sad, our thoughts are focused on what we don't have and what is wrong in our life.

So, in order to destress yourself, we have to take responsibility for our thoughts and evolve them to the opposite of what we are thinking. 

If you are angry, evolve your thoughts from fear to faith, telling yourself, "It's okay, I got this, I can handle this, and everything will be fine."  Many people think when they get angry, it's another persons fault.  In my experience, this is not true.  What is true is, when we get angry, it is a habit that we have developed, and we have a fear, for some crazy reason, that things won't go our way.  Anger is a way of throwing a tantrum, wanting control of the outcome, or fear we won't be able to handle the outcome.  Trust me on this one, you will be fine, and you will be better if you eliminate the fear and replace it with faith.

If you are anxious, evolve your thoughts from worry about your fear, to certainty, and confidence, telling yourself, "I am safe and calm, and I will move towards my desired outcome."  When we think about and move towards the most desired outcome for ourselves, we eliminate and replace our worry.

If you are sad, evolve your thoughts to happiness by thinking about all of your assets, blessings, and successes so far.

These are all habits of just retraining your brain. 

In order to retrain our brain, we must know that we can take responsibility for our thoughts, and then we will change them to better, more successful ones, which will lead to better feelings.  Thus, destressing ourselves.

THIS IS DESTRESSING YOURSELF!

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."  ~Proverbs 23:7

A great way to start taking responsibility for what you are thinking is by quieting your mind.  We can quiet our mind by meditating.  When we meditate, we learn the ultimate way of being calm within, and we can be relaxed any time, and any where.  When we meditate, we can be more aware of our thoughts and eliminate and replace the negative ones.

Part of destressingyourself is learning to quiet your mind, so that you can be a more relaxed person.

That's all I got!

Have a great week my friend, and remember, "You got this!"

Have fun!  Be playful!

Love you lots and lots ;0)

BIG HUGS...

Elizabeth

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY!

Good Monday mornin' my friend.  Did you have a lovely weekend?  I sho did ;)

Did you go to church?  I sho did!  Church was awesome yesterday.  Sho did lift my spirit.  The Christmas music was the best.  Are you in the mood for Christmas?  I sho am.

My friend's daughter asked me if I love Christmas or if I didn't love Christmas.  Cute huh?  I told her that I love Christmas.  She said, me too.  Then she asked me what I loved about Christmas, and I said everything except the gifts.  HA HA HA!

I really do love everything except the gifts.  If it were up to me I would just hang out with family and friends, and no gifts.  Could you imagine if Christmas was about Christ?  Just kidding, I know it is.  But what if we didn't give gifts and we just enjoyed good food and good company?  How destressed we would be!

Anywho, recently I talked about getting ready for 2012 and New Year's Resolutions.

Did you read about it?  Did you get your journal?  Did you start your journey with your journal by reading and writing about back to the basics post?  If you did, YOU ARE AWESOME!

If you did, YOU ARE TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR FUTURE.  So cool!

But, if you didn't, then I would like to persuade you to take responsibility for your future.

Recently, I have been helping more teens than I ever have.  A couple of years ago, I started to work with college-age students, lots of 18 and 19-year-olds.  Last month, I worked with more teenagers (under 18), than I have in my whole career of teaching permanent stress relief.

They have spoken of molestation, abuse, parental divorce, illness, and misery at home.  The number one issue I have dealt with is, "my beliefs of ugliness and why am I not good enough."  The latter is not so typical as the former never the less, it is all very stressful, wouldn't you agree?

When I talk to the youth about lack of self-confidence due to feeling ugly, or feeling not good enough I tell them stuff like, you are the boss of you, you are the only thinker of your thoughts, and so you gotta be the boss of your thoughts and you gotta think better thoughts.  I tell them to stop thinking that they are not good enough and I teach them affirmations, and how to use them.  An affirmation like, I am good enough!

We search for evidence that they are good enough, and we search for evidence that their beliefs are unreasonable.  For example, I tell them to notice everyone around them for a day or even a week and notice how unique everyone is.  Some people are fatter, some people are skinnier, some people are uglier, and some people are prettier.

This is amazing because the majority of them get it.  The majority of them get that they can take responsibility for their thoughts and that God has made everyone as unique as their thumbprint therefore, we can appreciate our uniqueness and focus on our assets and strengths.

Isn't that amazing?

What does this all have to do with destressing yourself?

Destressing yourself is all about awareness, and awareness has a lot to do with knowing that you can take responsibility for your thoughts, knowing that you can take responsibility for your life, and knowing that you can take responsibility for your future.

It amazed me how many teens got this.  It even seemed, to me, that teens were getting more than adults do.

What I am trying to say is, that you can learn to destress yourself by taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, and actions, as a result, you will take responsibility for your life and for your future.

So, get that journal, and start your journey to destress yourself in 2012.

That's all I got!

Speak soon...

Have fun this week...

Be playful!

Elizabeth Stanfill