I’m sitting with some friends at a co-working space in Denver, Colorado and I was stumped on what to write about today. I asked them what they’d like to learn from me and one of the ladies said, “I’d like to know how you re-frame ‘bad’ thoughts into ones that aren’t’ bad’.”
This subject came up because I decided that I should walk an hour and a half to meet them in the wind and rain that slowly turned to sideways ice and when I arrived soaking wet the first thing I said was, “Well that was an interesting choice I made.”
While I was walking and my clothes were getting increasingly drenched with cold precipitation, I knew my thoughts could take a couple of different trains. I could have hopped on the, why am I such a doofus train. Or the this is the worst and my life sucks train. I mean, I asked Siri what was the weather was where I am and she told me exactly what it was going to be like. I totally knew what I was getting myself into. Instead of taking those trains, I hitched a ride on the interesting choice train where my seat was located in the gratitude caboose.
My choice to walk in the wild elements wasn’t exactly a good or bad one, but it certainly was interesting. Would I make the same decision again? Probably not. My feet are soggy, I can’t feel my thighs and my face burns from all the ice that hit it. But, I made the choice and actually, the journey was a pretty cool one. The architecture in Denver is really unique and there was so much to look at. Beautiful art at ever turn. My health is good enough that I was capable of walking that far. I have friends I was meeting who care about me. If I couldn’t make the walk, one of them would have driven and picked me up. Yeah, I’m kinda cold, but I have so much to be grateful for.
Owning your choices and finding the gratitude in them no matter what is kinda tricky for sure. I wasn’t always the best at it. Actually I kinda sucked at it. Thinking this way was something I’ve been working on for years and now it’s second nature for me.
At first, my thoughts would automatically go to the worst case scenario or they’d be self-deprecating. Instead of pretending they weren’t there and replacing them with positive ones, I did something else because I tried that and it didn’t work. The thoughts didn’t go away. In fact, they got louder. Instead, I’d thank the thought for showing up and trying to protect me. I’d let it know that I’m good, I’ve got this and you’re free to go. After that I’d think about what I was grateful for.
I had to do this practice for a very long time to retrain my brain before the other thoughts diminished for the most part. That being said, I am a human and sometimes I fall down the rabbit hole. I’ll talk about that in my next newsletter.
Does that resonate with you? What do you do to shift your thoughts? Leave a comment below. I love interacting with you <3
The music lover in me sees and bows to the music lover in you,
