Affirmations

So for this month's Happiness Project theme I'm focusing on Mindfulness...being present in the moment and showing up to actually experience my life.  One thing that's really helped me out a lot so far this month is Affirmations, which is positive sayings that you say over and over again or think over and over again.

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At first I just wanted to be aware of my thoughts.  So without judgment I just noticed the thoughts I was having: "You're so fat" "You're being a really bad mom right now" "You're so lazy" "If you had will power you'd be at your goal weight by now" "That shirt is going to look horrible on you" "I'm so tired" "I'm so overwhelmed" "Did that girl just roll her eyes at me?" "My boss probably thinks I'm an idiot" "Does this person like me?" "That guy is a douche bag"  It's all negative!  I'm way too hard on myself and my thought patterns are atrocious.  I'm of the mind that the thoughts that you put out into the world create your experiences and that if you think it, it will come to manifestation in one way or the other.  Do I really want to live out experiences based out of those thoughts?  I know I need to change the way I think.

And as a bit of an aside, those aren't my only thoughts, I do think a lot of good and happy thoughts as well, but it's the negative ones I'm focusing on because those are the ones I want to change.

Most of those thoughts are playing on auto-pilot but I at one point made the decision to think them and I can make the decision to stop thinking them.  So I'm starting with affirmations.  When I catch myself thinking a thought like, "You're fat" I replace it with something like, "You're body is beautiful and you're working hard to make it healthier" or "This person probably hates me" I'll replace with, "Everyone is friendly".  I also have one or two affirmations that I write down and repeat over and over again for the week before replacing them.

It's really helped a lot.  Thinking happier thoughts has made me feel lighter and happier.