How To Change Our Life and Hearts for Better Health
Health is dependent on the state of our mind, heart and soul. If we are to change our life for the positive, it needs to start with today. The main focus in this blog is about gratefulness, forgiveness, and mindfulness and how that can change our day and our life.
Gratitude and having a mindset toward being grateful is important to improving not only our health but how we see our world. Today we are snowed in. It has snowed on and off since December 13th. We cannot walk our dogs because of the ice on our street. Our electric bill will be up another $50.00. There are two ways to look at this situation. The first is to complain, be depressed, and feel down. Is that view going to help my attitude?
My view on this month is up to me. I choose how I am going to view my situation. I am only in control of one thing, how I respond to events, conversations, and situations.
I am sitting here grateful that I don’t have to go to work, and that we are getting needed moisture for our area and the drought. I have more time than usual to write and get caught up on chores in the house. I am thankful for my husband who helped me vacuum yesterday and that I have him for company. I can list so many things that are a blessing. Blessings are not just big things but all the blessings such as food on the table, the bills paid, the rose blooming on our kitchen table, and the fact that I am breathing and well.
What are your blessings? Write them down.
When you are feeling blue, take time and list all your blessings. Most of us are so much better off than in other countries. We take for granted things like having a decent home to live in. People in many parts of the world are starving, are homeless, have no heat, no water and a sad life. Look at the Ukraine and their people. We don’t have to run from bombs and wonder if we are going to die with the next air assault.
Every day, in the morning take time to list your blessings.
This includes all the ones we take for granted such as breathing, being alive, our health even if it isn’t perfect, our family that is a blessing, and our mind being intact. After two concussions, I thank God every day that I have overcome the effects of those falls.
You are in control of your reactions!
It’s important to realize that YOU are in control of your thoughts, your interpretations, and your responses.
No one can offend you, if you don’t choose to be offended. No one can make you angry, if you choose not to be angry. No one can make you feel unappreciated if you don’t feel sorry for yourself.
It seems when life has given you some hard knocks, that you set up a defensive attitude. We just respond in a negative way, even when the remark was not intended to hurt us by the person saying it.
Where do these responses come from? They come from our childhood and parents. It may have been an ex-husband or friends from childhood. Events and conversations wound us in the soul. They are like splinters in our leg that we can’t remove, and they cause pain at times. They often pop up in an instant from the past, and we respond to someone not from what they really said but from hurt from the past. So how do we stop responding from these past wounds?
One way is to mindfully stop our thoughts before anything comes out of our mouth. Strive to look at the situation first, before reacting. That is difficult for those of us with a painful past. It is imperative we do that for our health and for the health of our relationships. It took me 2 courses in mindfulness, to help me see how I needed to change.
Let Go of Your Past
We must let go of our past to have happiness now and in the future. Your past, and we all have one, is ancient history. Many of the people who hurt you are dead or not a part of your life anymore. If you let them continue to impact your life, they won. Look at this way. Those people who hurt you made you a fighter. They caused you to become stronger and to learn to overcome so much. You are the amazing person you are today because of them.
We can either cry about events or learn from them. Instead of stumbling blocks, let them become steps to overcoming any circumstancing you have. Success is about how many times you got up after being knocked to the ground, not that you were down. I say this after overcoming two abusive marriages. We are made stronger through the fires of life.
Forgiveness is upmost in importance to have happiness.
Forgiveness helps you to be happy. It is not for the one who hurt you. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things to do in your life. I know that but it is the step you must take to put your life into a positive track. I forgave those who hurt me by understanding that those people were broken and did the best they could. They did not have the ability to love or treat you in a positive way. This does not excuse what they did but it does allow you to move on. It was not your fault. You were in their path.
Forgive Yourself
Forgiving yourself is even harder. You keep asking yourself why was I so stupid? Why did I not see that coming? It seems that learning the hard way and being young is a part of life. We did the best we could with the tools we had at the time. We survived with scars and lessons learned. Stop holding your happiness hostage because of your past. I say this from experience. Let it go and live in today.
Do you want to die angry?
I knew several people who died angry and that was sad. I have a relative who lives in an angry state all the time. No one wants to be around her, and she depresses everyone. I have never heard her be grateful for anything.
I made up my mind years ago, that this was not what I wanted for me.
Is this you?
Since we never know how many days we have in this world, you better really think about it. This is a new year and it’s never too late to change, to adopt a different attitude and to make the conscious choice to live in love, gratitude and forgiveness.
Cathryn Freer, the Herbladyisin