How To Stay Positive: Facing pessimistic thoughts with love
Yesterday I set out to make a new Ask Kelsey video.
The question was about how to interrupt pessimistic thinking and remain positive, especially when facing daily challenges and messages of self-judgment.
It was a good one!
And I had great answers!! Simple tools that have helped me stay present and shift myself back to a miracle mindset.
I went about setting up the space, preparing the camera equipment and recording as usual, but when I took a look at the first recording, it was blurry.
Okay, I said. No problem. I made some adjustments and re-recorded, thinking this take was even better!
But when I looked at the footage, it was yet again blurry.
Hmmm, okay, I say to myself. Let’s make another attempt. This time just a test. Everything appeared to be functioning properly so I went into another take. This one, again, even more lovely than the last.
Yep, you guessed it: Blurry.
At this point my patience is wearing thin and my frustration is beginning to rise.
The divine alignment of this is not lost on me.
I’m making a video about staying positive and I’m being challenged to stay positive.
I take a deep breath and practice what I preach.
There are so many other items on my to-do list for the day. In this moment I have a choice:
Option 1: Continue to fiddle with the settings on the camera and do take after take, which may work or may get me even more wound up and upset.
Or Option 2: Take a step back, stay present, lean into trust and choose self-care.
Thankfully I chose the latter.
I decided that either I’d use the awesome audio or maybe I’d re-record in the morning after having my husband help me troubleshoot the issue.
Great, I went about my day feeling light, at ease and in the flow.
It was a delicious and abundant day.
Then… as I was laying in bed, feeling tired, a new wave of pessimistic thoughts came over me.
Instead of latching onto them, I again, practiced what I preach and just noticed.
Specifically, I noticed a pattern that I had forgotten:
When I am tired, my pessimistic thoughts kick into high gear.
This is when everything clicked into place in my brain and when I woke up I knew I had to share all of this with you.
Our self-care is intimately linked to our ability to speak love and life on ourselves.
Our ability to tune in, listen with love and take loving action is what allows us to navigate our thoughts with ease.
This includes:
Creating fierce and loving boundaries - choosing our wellbeing over pleasing others or forcing an outcome.
Practicing forgiveness and self-kindness - facing fear, healing old limiting beliefs and releasing the past.
And receiving support - from others, yes, but mostly from ourselves in the form of rest and self-love practices.
All of these help us face challenges, or challenging thoughts, without falling into old patterns.
If you find any of the above easier said than done, then I’m happy to share that these are the themes of my Abundant Living online course that will run November 2019 - January 2020. Click here to the be first to know when enrollment opens.
Now, in the middle of all these epiphanies and remembering the deep connection our thoughts have with our self-care, I also reached out to my community - yes, you!!
I asked my Instagram followers if they wanted to enjoy the audio version of what I had already recorded or if they would really prefer video and they/you said AUDIO IS AWESOME!
Gain a handful of simple tools to bring your thoughts back to love - Listen here:
It really did all turn out better than I could have imagined.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I’d love to hear how you interrupt pessimistic thoughts or if any of these new tools resonated. Tell me in the comments.
Big love,
Kelsey