I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately on how to remove the unconscious limits we place on ourselves with negative self-talk, people, emotions, even our faith. Since the topics resonated with me, I realized I have some unconsciously negativity going on. I subscribe to the belief, “you spot it, you got it.” Well, I do and here it is.
Self-talk: Do you have negative self-talk going on in your head? A constant running stream of “you can’t, you’re not good enough, strong enough, or smart enough. You’re too old, out of shape and past your prime.” I have a lot of this. It almost stopped me from starting a blog, submitting my first magazine story, starting an amazing company, from authoring my first book, from believing I matter.
People: My oh my, people… We give them our power, often trading it for another’s bad opinion of us. Worse, we believe the opinions and take them on as reality. What we think, we become. I used to go from confident to worthless in less than a second. I relied on others’ thoughts, opinions and acts for my self-esteem until I had a God moment that changed who I was. My belief system was challenged and changed, my beliefs themselves uncomfortably stretched. It made me a stronger, more confident woman. Today I don’t live for people. Their opinions might sometime hurt my feelings or be out of line with who I really am, but I no longer measure my worth by someone else’s yard stick.
Fear: Where do I start? Fear, fear and more fear, disguising itself as anger, depression, and procsrastination. It is incapacitating. Fear stops me dead in my tracks. It has since I was a child. Fear kept me from believing I could work with and train my horses. Fear nearly paralyzed me when my husband, a US Army solider, received orders to Afghanistan recently. Fear is a thief and a liar. Fear will steal your life force while whispering, “ you couldn’t do the super-cool thing you’ve been dreaming about anyway.”
Faith: I am a Christian. I can say this today to myself and others. I have a powerful God, who gave the world his son Jesus, to die so I can live. I’m just beginning to understand what this means for me. I can tell you when I think about God, service and sacrifice, I feel strong. When I think about money and material stuff, I sense weakness as fear creeps into my soul. God develops in me strength through weakness, growth through fear and comfort through pain. Finally, I develop faith. The more I grow, the stronger my faith gets. Today when people see me, I want my life to be a reflection of His Love for us.
Positivity: The more positive things I do, think, feel or say, the more positive I become. To stay positive, we need to hang out with like-minded people. It’s critical we understand, in order to thrive in life, we must live in gratitude, to be willing to give more than we take. Gratitude keeps us humble and servant-hearted. When we are grateful, we exist in positivity. When I’m living in synchronicity with God and the world around me, …inside my soul, as goes an old Cherokee legend, I’m feeding the right wolf.
“Tale of the Two Wolves,” a Cherokee legend.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” — Cherokee legend
Which wolf do you feed?
Robin Aldrich is the author of Bootstrapped! Creating a Small Business on a Budget. Robin founded the Boomerang Business Project in 2015 to help other small businesses thrive through personal and professional development.
For more info, please visit Robin’s website!
If you like my articles and stories, please clap and share! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work. I wish you a blessed and prosperous day! ~ R.
Originally published at medium.com