I can’t believe it’s almost been a week since I decided to challenge myself! Onward, ho!
Day 7:
Something I'm Thankful For: Today is Tisha B’Av, a major fast on the Jewish calendar. It’s a day of mourning, reflection, and it quite appropriately has fallen out during my 30 Day Positivity Challenge. It’s a time to reflect on all we’ve lost throughout our history, and how we as individuals should be better, kinder people. I’m thankful for days like today that come as reminders to stop what you’re doing and simply think about the important things in life. I’m also thankful that I’m pretty good at fasting, because a 25 hour fast during one of the longest, hottest times of the year is definitely not going to be a picnic! (Hmmm… maybe “picnic” is the wrong word to be using at the moment…)
Challenge O' The Day: I decided that for today, from sun up until sun down, I will try to avoid any and all forms of negativity. No complaining, kvetching, nothing. If I forget, I hope to catch myself mid-sentence and stop myself in time from finishing that thought. We’ll see how it goes! I’ve been disappointed that I’ve allowed myself to wade in a perpetual pool of gloom lately, and have been allowing myself to overly vent about everything too much to compensate. Sometimes, I don’t even want to hang out with me. So for today, I’m taking a vacation from that train of thought.
Lesson Learned: In order to try to attempt a major overhaul of bad habits, I’ve been finding it’s best to start with one day and one specific aspect of said bad habit. It makes the end goal seem a lot more realistic and less intimidating to attain. I believe the scientific term for it is: “baby steps”.
Daily Insight: It’s an ambitious thing to try to transform your state of mind after it’s been taking hits over a long period of time. But it seems a lot more manageable for me to focus on the major things I want to change about myself by aiming to chip away at them slowly, rather than ripping it all off at once like a band aid. A band aid is only meant to be a temporary solution anyway. I think I’m going to make a list of the things I’d like to change about myself (realistically, over time) and figure out slow ways to do so, rather than aim to change everything cold turkey. So today, it’s the negative word spewing that’s been coming out from my mouth lately. Excited to figure out what to focus on next!