Appreciating life and being grateful
For so many years I would say I was a big fat negative Nelly. I used to see everything in my life as a negative, pretty much just focusing on the wrongs in a situation. For example, I once went to Disney World in Florida and hated every minute of it. I caused myself to have multiple panic attacks a day just thinking of all the “bad things” that could happen. Some were more reasonable than others, like when a tornado warning flashed up on the news but some were irrational. For example, I convinced myself that Disney was going to clone my finger print and frame me for some mega horrific crime I hadn’t committed (I literally LOL at this now). I also worried about getting shot, getting on a bus, being around strangers, being eaten by a crocodile and even not being able to ever get home again (because I couldn’t possibly do the drive to the airport in a coach with strangers.) I can’t begin tell you the amount of stress and worry I caused myself, and I’m sure others around me. In those 2 weeks I was probably the most anxious, stressed and depressed I’ve ever felt. I will happily admit now that I literally caused it all myself. I laugh about this period of time so much as the person I am today I couldn’t be further from the girl I was then. Looking back I can see the problem I had was the way I was choosing my belief system. I believe that how you see the situation is the situation. Quite simply what you believe something is, it is. I could have chosen to appreciate the amazing new country I was getting to explore, the friendliness Americans expressed towards everyone, the amazing sun and being with family while in fucking Disney. I think you can never appreciate things or be grateful enough. It really does help you make the most out of life and makes you see things in the best possible way.
Now when I find myself moaning about certain things I then stop myself and realise that I’m just looking at the situation from the wrong angle. For example, when I first opened my beauty salon it was a massive shock to my system and I wasn’t necessarily prepared for how busy I’d get. I remember getting quite stressed and overwhelmed thinking thoughts like “All I do is work”, “I have no social life”. “I’m not good enough for how busy I get, I don’t deserve it”. I decided one day that these thoughts did not serve me at all, so I got a note book and started writing all the things that I love about my job. They would include things like: “I genuinely have love for my clients.” “I am in control of how I choose to run the business, so if I don’t like it I will change it.” “I have the best opportunity to better my life and others.” and “I have a passion for making people feel better, therefore this is the perfect business for me to have.” Once I started changing the way I thought, I went in to boss mode and just really owned it. 2 years later I couldn’t be happier with how far I’ve come and how the business is going. My confidence is at an all time high and I just genuinely love my life. I love having my shop to focus on and to be able to watch it grow. I am so excited to see what the future holds now.
So, from this my advice would be to just appreciate as much as you can, the good and the bad because you have the power to mould a situation to how you want it. You can choose to learn from a negative circumstance instead of wallowing in it. Try and make everything you do benefit you; whether it does it in the moment or will in the future. The ultimate aim is to enjoy life to its fullest and when you can switch your focus up to a full on gratitude/attitude mode you’ll start to find that your life just gets better and better. You won’t even be having to change the way you look at things as they will just be as you want them x x
