Gratitude
journals seem to be all the rage now, especially with the start of a new year.
I must admit I truly believe there is something to it. In the crazy, go-go-go
world we live in, we rarely slow down long enough to appreciate the good things
in life, unless it’s something massive like getting pregnant or a getting a
hard earned promotion at work. Sometimes a random stranger holding a door for
you and give you an unexpected smile, can really give you a boost!
Unfortunately, we often get very caught up in the negative; even the most
infinitesimal things can set us off. Keeping a gratitude journal not only
focuses us on the good things, but also sets us on a mindset to seek out those
positive things throughout the day, no matter how small they may be.
Although I have kept a gratitude
journal on and off for a quite a while, I have recently taken a slightly
different approach to this. Although I am much healthier than I have ever been,
I too have times where I still struggle to stay on track. Like many people,
especially women, I am an emotional eater. I have a bad day and I often get
stuck in it, my eating habits go out the window (hey I already had 2 cookies
why not eat half the box….) and instead of going to the gym I opt for a nice
glass of wine (or maybe 2, 3, etc.) I think worse than actually going off the
rails, is the self-imposed guilt after that fact. I beat myself up for days and
vow to never do it again! Let’s face it…I am human and we all have bad days – I
am going to have days where maybe I overindulge! Why do we feel the need to
punish ourselves? The constant guilt does nothing to help you; in fact it often
sabotages you. I mean, if I already feel bad, continuing to beat myself up only
further depresses me, which is what led to the devouring of the cookies in the
first place! It’s not exactly motivating!
I have
always been someone who is very hard on myself; I am type A through and
through. Trust me when I tell you that no one could say or do anything that is
harder on me than I am on myself. When I was a kid the worst possible thing my
mom could say to me was that she was disappointed in something that I
did…punish me, yell at me, take away the TV or honestly I think there were
times I would rather be spanked (not that I ever was…my parents were not
spankers), but being a disappointment was the worst! Even as I got older, if I
got a 98 on an exam, I would torture myself over those 2 missed points and why
I got them wrong! It’s so twisted! I got a 98….HELLO that is freakin’ awesome!
So now
instead of focusing on every “wrong” thing I do each day, I keep a “good
things” journal. Every day I write down a couple of things that I did that were
really good; either for me or for someone else. Even on those bad days when I
can’t stop myself from grabbing a couple cookies I know I shouldn’t of
had…instead of spending the day beating myself up over it and vowing to starve
myself for the rest of the day, I acknowledge the fact that maybe that was not
the best choice, but hey at least I didn’t devour the entire plate! In fact,
stopping that negative thought in its tracks is usually that thing that stops
me from eating 10 more cookies!
So tonight when you go home,
instead of focusing on everything that went wrong or maybe did not quite go as
planned…jot down a couple really good things you did today. Being healthy is a
lifelong path, you are gonna take some side trips and that’s okay. More
importantly don’t underestimate the importance of our emotional health on our
physical health. So what good things did YOU do today?
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