Starting your day with positive intention is a crucial part of overcoming depression and putting the brakes on stress and anxiety.
"Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you". Victor Frankl - best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning
Your thoughts become your reality. Energy flows where attention goes, meaning, where you place your attention you place your energy.
"Inhabit the beauty that lives in your body and strive to see the beauty in all the other beasts." - Cheryl Strayed -
First thing in the morning, align your thoughts with positive intention and give gratitude for what you have. If you think you have nothing to be grateful for, check your pulse.
So, each morning before you rise out of bed, lay there for several minutes and align your thoughts with positive intention and give gratitude for your breath, give gratitude for the air you are breathing (concentrate, and focus on your breath, visualise and feel the air flowing through your nose). Give gratitude for your heartbeat (see your heart in your mind's eye and see it beating and pumping in perfect harmony with your life force).
‘As easy as this may sound, it takes discipline to focus your thoughts on positive intention when you first wake up.’ With persistent practice, you will acquire a disciplined focus that will set your mind up for a good day.
‘As I’ve mentioned earlier,’ a lot of people on waking love to jump straight into the role of victim, because it is familiar, they know it fits and they don't have to try something new, it is the path of least resistance.
If this is you and you are parading around in the costume of a negative belief, wondering why negativity is sticking to you like shit to a shoe. You have to understand, if you create the storm (negative thoughts) you can't cry when it rains (the horrible feelings you are feeling).
Let your thoughts be the barometer for what kind of day you are going to have. If you want sunshine and a happy day, you need bright and cheerful thoughts. No matter what your conscious mind preconceives, thinks or feels about the day ahead.
If your thoughts for the day are focused on bills to pay, horrible job, boss, workers, traffic, bad news, illness, sadness, loss then your day will be governed and directed by the thoughts you head into the day with. The choice is yours and yours alone, you are the master of your mind, remember? You can leave the house with an umbrella or a smile. The choice is yours. Disciplined decisions will decide your day.
Why not wake up with positive intention and wear your best curve every day... Your best curve is your smile. It fits great and looks fantastic.
Try it on now... now make it a little bigger... and bigger again... notice how many sizes it comes in, cool ay.
And did you notice how it made you feel? A genuine smile creates an instant shot of dopamine.
Try it again... POW, you just got another shot... Good Ay!
Watch out for the side effects though. Oh yeah, there are side effects. A sustained genuine smile will make you feel happy (remember the brain doesn't know the difference between an event that is happening and one that is imagined, so a smile signals to the brain you are happy and gives you a feeling of happiness, even if you genuinely fake it).
Another side effect of a genuine smile; it can also make other people happy and the energy it produces can create a sense of connectedness.
The trouble I feel these days within the rat race of our me, me, me obsessed world, is, smiles seem to have become a little obscure and harder to find, as people endlessly finger their flat screens in search of recognition from a friend base of people they don't even know.
Hoping a selfie in a bathroom wearing a new bikini, or a picture of their latest meal, or maybe a picture of themselves lying in a hammock in some remote island, will validate their existence. That last one was me actually, well they all were. Hey, don't judge me, it was a wonderful bikini, and I got two hundred and twelve likes.
I'm human and I am well aware I was, and still from time to time can get, caught up in the me, me obsessed world; searching with a lost soul through glass screens trying to validate my worth and find a glimmer of purpose. ‘I later found that validating my worth and finding a glimmer of purpose was only achievable after a digital detox.’
With my digital distraction down and a positive intention locked in, my personal real, live smile became my daily posts as I passed random individuals whom I didn't even know from every walk of life. My validation was achieved by the smiles I received back, and my purpose was once again clear.
I am here on this earth to be happy and make as many people as I can happy. That's why I chose to be a comedian.
If your body was a Christmas tree, your smile would be the fairy lights. Why not turn them on and brighten everyone's day?
A smile can transcend time and space and is the multicultural language of love and happiness of the human race. Before you leave your dwelling please make sure you are wearing your best curve, your smile, and if you see someone without a smile, stop and pause, and give them one of yours. You can save a life with this one little gift alone. Someone may have been contemplating their final moments before they received your most precious gift... With this gift they found, connection, worth and faith that everything will be alright.
Set your positive intention today. Become a Mind Ninja and decide to smile daily.
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