You attract what you put out. This is the core principle of The Law of Attraction, which is basically if you think positive, good things will happen and if you think negative, negative things will happen. This concept became popular by Rhonda Brynes documentary film, then book “The Secret.“
“This Sucks”, “God I hate this job”, “My life sucks”, “I’m not good enough”, “I’ll never be anything in life.” These are all examples of negative self talk or negative affirmations, that we have all said to ourselves at one point or another in our lives, or it’s something we may consistently do. Especially when things aren’t going our way, life throws curveballs at us or when people constantly put us down. When you are used to thinking this way, it can be hard to find the good in your day, let alone find things to be grateful for in life.
Then we have positive affirmations or self talk such as “I am getting healthier everyday”, “Something good is going to happen to me today/tomorrow”, “I am strong and resilient,” “I am intelligent and capable”…you get the idea. In this case if we say positive things, we have a different and brighter outlook on life on a day to day basis. I for one have done the positive affirmations here and there and thought they just don’t work. Why don’t positive affirmations work for many people? First off, it should be done daily, not sporadically. They also don’t work because if you say things like “I am smart and capable, but deep down inside you feel dumb, then your mind will automatically reject what you are saying. Deep down, you don’t believe what you are saying. I have done this for soo long and never understood the concept of positive thinking because there was always something happening. I always thought “yeah right, this is bullsugar”, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop and it always did, so then I’d figure, why the F bother!
Recently I thought I’d give this another try. I thought I started my positive affirmations after I got a cold, but I actually started about a week after my endoscopy which left me feeling like absolute garbage physically. I was watching a reel on the Instagram page ‘Manifestationwishes’ and in what looked like an old video, a gentleman was talking about positive affirmations. ‘I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me tomorrow’ in his video he says to say it the night before, then the morning of and all day, and you will see a change.
Now I didn’t remember his exact words at the time, so I just repeated to myself each night “Something good is going to happen to me tomorrow”, and I added to it, I will feel better tomorrow then I do today. This time I said it with no negativity or disbelief in my heart. Just a genuine desire and belief that I would accept my day with grace no matter what.
The next day, I made it to my dentist on time and I forgot my hat on what turned out to be a very frigid day. I went to Macys after the appointment quickly and was able to purchase one that was on sale and I was told I had points, so the Steve Madden hat ended up costing me $6.00. This was a big deal since I am on a budget. I thanked the universe and kept repeating this affirmation over and over each day and night and each day something good happened.
Granted, I did get a cold after my dentist appointment, but that was because I forgot to bring my winter hat so I did not blame the universe for this or belittle myself for forgetting. Stuff happens. I still continued to tell myself that good things will happen to me and each day something would come up. A paycheck from my side gig came in time for me to pay the dentist, being able to get an appointment near me for lab work. Then finding exactly the purse I had been looking for over 15 years for myself and the gifts I wanted to get for my mom in the same place (Burlington) that was well within my budget. Being able to carry all the items I paid for and then find a place to stand on the train where I could put my bags down and not have to hold on to the pole which I still do not have enough strength for unless my hands are both free. All these were things that made my day easier, better and made me feel like the universe was smiling at me.
Today, however, I was excited to go to my friend’s house who lives almost 3hours from me and finally meet in person the other Goddesses from the group she invited me to a year ago and I could not go because my stomach was acting up. I got up at 5:30am to make sure I had time to get ready, but my dang poop pipes were frozen. The discomfort was there, and when I get this bad, you never know when the pipes will unfreeze so I could not go to see my friend. The night before I spent hours baking cookies to bring and was proud that while they weren’t perfect, they tasted good according to my mom.
So I cried. I did everything right, ate fiber, drank water, slept early and I was still have issues? REALLY? I have worked hard in the past few months to deal with life. But today, I was utterly disappointed because I rarely go out. Because I hadn’t seen my friend Mary in person in well over 6 years. Because I was finally feeling better and was confident I was going to be able to go out and enjoy life again, and then once again, I had to sit on the sidelines. All the years of me having to cancel plans, and lose friends over my IBS issues, then gastritis issues, and missing events or time with my family because I was on the porcelain throne, came crashing on me today. So, I slept for a few hours. I wallowed. Then I got up. I decided to try some of the cookies I had made and felt even worse. Not because they tasted bad. They tasted good, but the cookies had cocoa powder which thankfully didn’t irritate my esophagus, but it wrecked my stomach and made my gastritis worse.
So with all of this what the heck should I be thankful for? What was the good thing that happened to me today? NOTHING! Then, I realized after listening to my friend Mary’s voice message on my phone, yeah, the good things is I realized I have a gem of a friend. A friend who totally understood and didn’t get upset that I couldn’t make it despite me telling her I’d be there. So yeah, today sucked stomach wise, but I was hit in the heart with the fact that I have another friend who I can count on to understand.
So I WILL keep saying the affirmations even when things are gloomy because After every storm the sun will smile,” – William R. Alger
Until next time my phoenixes. Look for the good in your day no matter how small. Never give up!
Mind Body Synergylia 