Challenge Yourself

With all of the challenges I have faced in my short life, maybe more than other people, maybe fewer. Keeping a smile on my face, a positive attitude has been a constant.

Life is imperfect, we have to do the best we can do. It's important to hope that good times are on their way to find us wherever we are on this little blue marble in space.

Hold

On

Pain

Ends

Road trips I take, I take them on my own. Keeping a fully charged police grade taser on the seat next to me, helps. People fear for my safety because they have not seen me in action. If they did, they would know, I can definitely take care of myself.

On my solo road trips, there's a lot of time to think. Photography is far from one of my strong skills. So, I think a lot, as I drive through the flat stretches of highway in Wyoming. The winding mountain terrain of Colorado & Utah. Those winding mountain roads scare me so much, especially when I have a close call with a deer. I'm in their space, their home. It would make me feel so horrible if my car hit & killed one of those beautiful, graceful, Bambis.

On these long road trips, no radio stations. There's a whooooole lot of time to think. It's during these times that I practice my positive thinking, the most. Thinking in the positive, speaking out loud, in the positive. I repeat positive phrases out loud. Sometimes, I even sing. It's better to sing tenor. Ten or 12 miles from other people. 😅

People often remark at how positive I am, most of the time. I have my negative moments, occasionally. Then, I catch myself, interject some positive words.

I speak to myself, inside my private thoughts, as I would speak to someone who I dearly love. It's self-care, in a way. Self-love in its purest form. When you truly love yourself, you can accomplish so much more than if you were malcontent with your life. Malcontent with your own actions. A phrase that I love is in the meme below.

Just to be clear. I love men. I know & have known many great men, starting with my beloved Grandfather, Sherman L Kendall. He was such a great man; all family members who knew him, still revere him.

Romantically?

Most of my experiences with males, romantically speaking, in my life, up to 2012, have been horrible. In 2012, I had my fill. I moved to Texas from Colorado, made a decision to remain single & celibate. It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

I love men.

Also, I love elephants & giraffes, I simply don't want one in my backyard or to go on dates with them. LOL!

With all of that, said, are you ready to challenge yourself?

Get ready!

There are elements of negative speech that starts when a person is barely 6 months old. Often, even younger.

NO!

Don't!

Don't touch!

Stop that!

Don't do that!

Stop doing that!

These are some of the very first words & phrases parents say to their children. Parents who love their precious babies. The negative indoctrination starts at a very young age.

Admittedly, I did barely start that way, then, I caught it. I began to work on remembering to talk to my precious children in more positive terms.

If you are the parent of a small child or are expecting a baby or hope to be a parent eventually, there is more hope for you. Just playing.

Even if you're hoping to speak more positively just to yourself, for now, there are many practices you can adopt.

First, if you eliminate the use of can't, don't, not, no, won't, with all their various forms. This is a good start. If you practice, in your thinking, inside your mind where you are the only one who creates it & hears it. The positive speech will begin to be part of the words & phrases you say that others can hear.

For example, in place of:

"I don't like that."

You could say:

"I prefer this instead"

Just a simple change. In time, speaking in the positive will become the new normal for you.

Something I have noticed in many people, particularly people in their 20s & 30s, is a culture of complaining.

Complaining about how unfair life is, complaining about how other people act or someone who has treated them unfairly. Complaining about "rich people", high prices. Often, the practice also includes expressions of powerlessness over the political climate. Most of it is, I noticed, wanting others to understand them while they withhold effort to first, understand the others.

In my limited life experience, I have learned to seek to understand others before my desire to be understood. It seems to go smoother. 

This also soothes feelings of malcontent for me, calms anxiety before it can take root.

There have been some very wise, compassionate, kind people in my life whom I am so humbled, so grateful to know. Grateful to them for patiently teaching me. The lessons they taught me have been very valuable as I learn & grow, personally. These people have been such great teachers, to me.

They were simple, everyday people, with a kind & compassionate approach to life, to their treatment of others.

An important lesson I learned early in life was that I can learn something from everyone. My teachers of life lessons weren't 100%, a group of 70+ people.

Nope.

People of all ages. Cradle & beyond. Children have such a fresh, new, beautiful view of life. I have learned some profound lessons from the viewpoint of a 2 year old.

"Chocolate messy, it's good. It make me happy even when it's messy".

Some lessons I have learned is that every lifestyle has its pros & cons. Even being financially wealthy has its challenges. There are often outcries of how "pretty people" have far fewer problems, of how unfair it is that more attractive people, lead charmed lives of such ease. While, I admit, people who are more physically attractive do have certain advantages, this phrase comes to mind:

What a person does with the life aspects they have can make such a big difference. Many public people & the events of their lives have proved that being very physically attractive or financially wealthy also have their trappings. It's simply an exterior, 1 aspect of a person.

The lives of Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, Elvis Presley, remind us that what you do with what is naturally a part of you at birth, makes a huge impact. It makes a huge impact on you, personally. That impact will have a ripple effect on the world around you.

Challenge yourself to think in the positive, feel the change it makes.