Practice! Practice! Practice! You know how some of us had to "try, try again" to quit smoking before we finally "got it"? Well, I believe it works the same for other bad habits. When you've gotten used to living a certain way it's oh, so easy to fall back into that pattern. Negative thinking is a bad habit. Because it makes us feel depressed. I have read that depression is just anger turned inward. If that's the case, then we're getting mad...AT OURSELVES! Imagine that! Who knows what happened long ago that we're trying to punish ourselves from the inside out? It doesn't really matter anymore, does it? What matters is little by little changing how we think. We CAN and do control what we think. Don't let that negative monster tell you different.
I've been trying hard to practice what I preach about positive thinking and it does work. We are what we think we are. If we say we're depressed often enough we'll come to believe it. The same is true for the opposite: If we replace "depressed" with "happy" we might not believe it at first. But if we repeat it to ourselves often enough we eventually accept it as fact.
We have to allow ourselves some down times, though, too. Not very many, but we can't beat ourselves up for it. It's just our psyches relaxing and falling back into an old pattern. Just like it's easier or more comfortable to slouch rather than standing/sitting up straight, (Oh, I hear my mother now...) It took us years to get this way; What makes us think we can now change it overnight?
You'll be fine cuz your awesome and you know it.
Chill, baby: We're all with you!
mc
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B] 8/31/2005
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 377
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 5,661
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1508
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 36 [B]Hrs:[/B] 17 [B]Mins:[/B] 20 [B]Seconds:[/B] 9