Musings

Some of my best moments are the first ones in the morning. You know the kind, groggy and just waking up. I love to loll a little in the pillows and let my mind wander.

I think we all assume that to get the best rest, we must be asleep. Sure, but...Our waking mind needs to play a little too. It helps our creativity and lowers our stress.

After taking Margie Lawson's class on defeating our self-defeating behaviors, I began practicing something I'd never thought of before. At night, before falling asleep, I do two things. First, I tell myself 5 positive things to look forward to the next day. Second, I tell myself several things I like about me.

This came out of that great class. Margie taught last month that in order to change our defeatism, we must change the way we think. Good plan! But how? Read on...



[Here's a picture of Margie Lawson (in the white gown) with a few of us writers at American Christian Fiction Writer's conference in Dallas September 2007. Psst, I'm in the red.]

Then I heard Sharon Roberts speak at a conference recently. She had an acronym for poor thought process. A. N. T's or Automatic Negative Thinking. It fit well with what Margie taught.

Now I'm working on giving myself a rest on those silly A.N.T's. Why should I degrade myself and repeat negativity to myself? Why should you? Does it make anything better? Does it help you sleep or be more productive?

They both taught something else: Write down those A.N.T's. Margie took it a step further. Write it over and over until it's all out of you. Then burn the negativity. Really, toss it in a fire. Somehow it helps you to let go of that self-defeating behavior. You release the negative energy.

I find it very interesting that two ladies in different businesses, who have probably never met, offered nearly the same advice. So I'm thinking there might be a message in there for us.

I'm going to try it.

In the meantime, I'm also going to keep on starting my day subconsciously the night before. I'm going to wake up pondering the wonder of the day to come. I'm going to stomp out those pesky A.N.T's.

How 'bout you?

May your day be blessed with positive thoughts and may you begin to love yourself a little bit more each day.
Angie
PS. Please remember to visit me over at these blogs:
God Uses Broken Vessels
and
Writing By Faith (I'm the Wed. poster there.)