Switching

Have you ever been on a curvy road that winds back and forth on a mountain? They take longer to get to the top and yet are safer than going straight up.

We can do the same thing with our thoughts.  By coming up with thoughts that are more loving about our body or diagnosis we change the direction of our day. Much like the windy road up the mountain a thought switch moves us in a new direction.

A thought switch can look something like, “my body has failed me again,” to “what can I do in my body right now?”  

While the hope may be to go from a crap thought to a bright shiny new thought, that often is hard to do and takes practice. Our brains have something like 60,000 thoughts a day so they want to conserve energy by taking short cuts.  They do that by grabbing familiar thoughts because that takes less time and energy.  

You may catch the crap thoughts coming up and it may seem like they are more prevalent when you start to pay attention to them.  Give yourself some grace and remind yourself of your new bright shiny thought.  Write it in places you will see it (but remember our brains like to conserve energy, so move it around often so your brain doesn’t tune it out), record yourself saying it out loud, make it your screensaver, share it with a friend or loved one.  

It may take time to believe the new bright shiny thought because you have been thinking the crap thoughts for longer than you may realize.  So practice, practice, practice!

Share in the comments your bright shiny thoughts that allow you to move beyond your diagnosis.