journey watermark

In my last post, I shared with you that I had been struggling with negativity and how difficult it was to change my outlook and perspective…in other words, to kick that unwanted house guest in my head right on out the door! When we are struggling with low self esteem, negativity, and/or stress I believe the biggest challenge is to identify and reflect on how and why we are having these feelings, but not go into the rabbit hole of obsessing. Sounds easy, right?  It is not easy but it sure is fruitful!

Is it easy to take responsibility for our choices and actions? To take over the plane when we have been flying on auto-pilot for so long. What if we crash? What if we can’t navigate through the storm ahead? What if we let our passengers down? We may not be playing the plane wreak scenarios in our heads, but maybe you’re asking these questions…

What if I fail?  What if I’m rejected? What if they see my imperfections?

We all ask these questions! These questions can help us to logically navigate through the storm, right? The concern is when we can’t stop asking these questions after a storm and we are still feeling fear even when the storm has passed, we went down the rabbit hole. What then? Stress, low self esteem, anger, confusion, fear, negativity…you get it and this is where we become stuck on auto pilot again. Better to let that guy handle those things.

It’s easy to not identify or acknowledge our feelings in our world today. We are busy and with all the distractions we can check out on our feelings and check into the TV, internet, work, social media, drinking, eating, etc. and feel like we are accomplishing something. We choose to not honor our feelings and soon our feelings are manifesting themselves in other ways like addictions, overeating, complaining/ negativity, restlessness. obsessiveness, not able to sleep, depression, and fear or lack of peace.

I was in this dark place and I was dwelling on negativity, completely unaware of my feelings of hurt and rejection.  So how did I get out of that dark hole? I am not an expert on feelings or anything for that matter, but I can tell you about 4 things that are working for me.

  • Set aside time for prayer and reflection everyday.
  • Identify my feelings and acknowledge why I’m feeling that way, then release them.
  • Intentional thinking.
  • Attitude of gratitude.

I am going to go into details about these 4 steps in the coming weeks posts.  These are steps which you can apply to begin living a life that honors the reflection of your journey. I know that our journeys are hard sometimes, filled with struggles, sorrow, and pain. But know this, we are not defined by our circumstances we are defined by our response to those circumstances and we are defined by God’s love for us. We are ALL precious in the eyes of God, no matter our  choices, no matter our mistakes, no matter our circumstances. So let’s honor each and every step on this life journey so that our soul reflects love and truth.

My next post will offer tips on how to make more time for prayer and reflection.

Be gentle on yourself this week!