So I honestly forgot about the blog I had started back in May until I came across it on my favorite pages, so I'm deciding to write on my days off (Tuesdays) to keep my thoughts moving. I'm going to start each blog with a positive quote because I believe positive thoughts can stimulate the brain to do great things. This quote is from one of my friends Facebook status' and it really hit home for me. Strangely enough, the same quote popped up again on a work email I recently received.
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."
- Unknown
I believe that you can't wait for life to clear up and cater to you, you really need to do something about it if you want a change in your life.
Over the summer I was so busy. On top of my already busy work week, I was the maid-of-honor for my best friends wedding, accepted another position within my company, and still tried to have a normal life hanging out with friends. Being this busy blocked a lot of negative thoughts from my head because I didn't have time to think. But once it all calmed down, negativity took over.
Working in a health club there are standards people are held to, at least I felt this way. You need to be this skinny and this much body fat percentage in order to be the part. Every time I would walk into work, I would have an anxiety attack. Negative thoughts of not being good enough physically were crossing my mind and would soon enough take over to where I would start to panic and feel like I was going to faint. Also on top of not being good enough physically, I thought I wasn't good enough mentally either. I graduated in December of last year and needed more stimulation than just my daily activities at work (I think a lot of people feel this way after graduating and still being under-employed). So basically I was thinking of the most terrible things which brought on more terrible thoughts, until I decided to change that.
I read this book written by a guy who also had many anxiety attacks titled "A Life Less Anxious." I was searching on amazon.com one day and came across it. I read the reviews and they all seemed legit, so I bought it.
People respond to things differently when getting into a negative state of mind. Some choose prescription drugs, some choose alcohol, and some choose isolation. I fell into the prescriptive drug category and must have tried over 7 different medications but they all made me feel like sh**. So I tried something else, reading about the problem. It's funny how much common sense came from this book, but like I said all people respond differently.
The best ideas I took from this book were to...
SLOW DOWN - America is such a fast paced country, it's no surprise that over 40 million people suffer from anxiety. I've learned to give myself enough time to get ready for work so I don't have to rush and drive the speed limit. Surprisingly I have been 15-20 minutes earlier to work everyday.
SPEND TIME BEING QUIET & LISTENING TO YOURSELF - Steve Pavilanis, the author of this book suggested meditation, but I still haven't gotten myself to go to another class since I had an anxiety attack in one. I will go back though, because another good thing to do is to overcome your fears. Even though I'm scared to do some things, I've slowly began integrating them into my routine to get used to them, to overcome the fear. But anyways back to the being quiet part. One thing I have gotten back to is listening to more calming music versus "pumped up" music all the time. I find listening to more relaxing music helps me think about what I want more of in life. Reading really interested me lately too. Not magazines about Kim K, but books about life and other peoples life experiences. My next book is Steve Jobs.
THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE - This is where the thinking negatively comes into play. Focusing your thoughts on what you want versus what you don't want is the key to healing this problem. Whenever I was starting to think negatively, my anxiety would come. Now whenever I start to think negatively, I change that around to something good. It takes some practicing, but soon it will be a natural thing and negative thoughts will be minimal to none.
HAVE GRATITUDE FOR WHAT YOU HAVE - This goes along with thinking positively and making goals for life. If you don't have something you want in life, make it a goal to achieve it. I want to get out of my moms house, therefore I made a commitment to pay off all my credit cards by next summer and then GET OUT OF DODGE!
REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS - I have forgotten my dreams in life due to so many things. So I decided to start a dream board. Sounds kind of dumb, but I stare at this thing getting ready everyday and I makes me motivated to be the best so I can achieve my dreams. Every time I see something I want in a magazine or in a past picture I put it on my board. Anything is achievable!
That's all I have for today. Keep it real, keep it positive. Life is good.
