“Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” - Benjamin Disraeli

We can be our worst enemies sometimes. We have so many things to deal with every day and we always seem to put another person or a job-related goal ahead of ourselves. If you aren't taking care of yourself, then you're not going to be good to anyone or anything that you're trying to accomplish.

A few people in my life are struggling right now with the way they talk to themselves. We can forgive others for small mistakes, sometimes even big mistakes, but often cannot forgive ourselves. You scrutinize every aspect of your behaviour, what you said, the way you said it, what you did and how you did it, and kick yourself for saying or doing the wrong thing in the worst possible way. You run those mortifying stories over and over in your head. You ruminate and now you're stressed out. I know you understand what I'm speaking of because we all deal with it every day. But can you honestly tell me what positive outcome can come out of that negative internal conversation?

In today's day and age, we have so many things we need to be aware of: the health of our marriage, raising children, performing well at work, eating right, taking care of our parents, maintaining friendships, laundry, finding time to exercise . . . and on and on. The list can be overwhelming. I want to encourage you treat yourself with kindness by maintaining a positive conversation in your mind. You deserve it! When a negative conversation begins in your head, stop! Ask yourself how you could look at it at that moment in a more positive way. You owe it to yourself! The conversation upstairs in your mind is the key to the outcome of everything else in your life.

I encourage you to:

~ Give yourself a break. Cut yourself some slack.

~ Remind yourself that you're only human and mistakes are part of life.

~ Ask yourself, how significant is this anways?

~ Maintain perspective.

~ Make sure you have some way of celebrating small moments.

~ When an emotion comes up, don't put a story with it. Stories can range from “Poor me” to “Why bother?” to “No one wants me” to “These idiots always screw everything up!” to “I’ll never get this right!”. Just acknowledge the emotion and move on with a plan of action to deal with it.

~ Treat yourself as you treat others.

~ Acknowledge your accomplishments and praise yourself. You've earned it!

I encourage you to be more gentle with yourself in 2008. Become your biggest cheerleader, begin to recognize your own emotions as choices, and watch how you grow.

~ Live Well ~
Trinity Fitness
"Harmonizing your mind, body and soul for total Trinity Fitness"


“You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn't worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise L. Hay