Sunday Inspiration: Enjoy Life

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

Only through experience of trial and suffering

can the soul be strengthened,

ambition inspired and success achieved.”

– Helen Keller

I have made it my mission to write a thousand words a day and to make the words that I share positive as a way of engaging a smile in someone else.

Through it all, I will benefit by festering my own wounds that have yet to heal and have been holding me prisoner to my doubts since they first left scars. I will not admit to living a life full of immense sadness but I will say that the past took such a toll that it still has fire power over my mood because of the heaviness of the scenes where and when the bulk of negative instances occurred that sort of affected the entirety of my huge heart.

Sometimes I am happy and then I think about those moments in time which I fell and then I unhesitatingly choose to withhold my beautiful smile. I get lost in the music of the thoughts of how I lost my step and what did not go my way in these detours that shouldn't have, and then I feel this emotional fragility that should not be present but is, because the past takes over.  

I don’t know if you can relate to constantly blaming yourself for where you are or are not in the present moment that leaves a physical reminder of how you messed up. Though accomplishments may occur daily, you overlook them because you never allowed yourself to experience closure from your past. You rather stay tightly bonded to your disappointments than to experience the momentary joys which I could say are on the flip side of the bad yesterdays.

Positive thoughts are the glasses that are half full. They create the sensation of looking on the bright side. Being upright and positive would result in the good feelings that you could have though you feel nothing but numbness where the sunshine should be beaming.

Here Are Some Things You Can Do to Ward Off the Self-Negative Reactions.

1. Encourage yourself.

Make a list of the good things in your life. Acknowledge the accomplishments. Pat your own self in the back with each rung you climb. Award yourself with a golden star or a mani/pedi when you take a tiny leap into the direction of your choosing.

2. Shake it off.

Turn on some feel-good music and just dance. For one, it will burn off a couple of calories. Secondly, music has a way of creating positive energy within. It can be that one thing to instill hope in those great, big old eyes.

3. Style

When you look good, you feel great. I don’t know about you but if I dress up and look stylish, I can’t have bad feelings about myself when I am looking at my dolled up, sexy self in the mirror. Dress up! Put on some stylish jewelry on. Put some makeup on and smile at how beautiful you are in your coordinated fashion. Look in the mirror and see the fearfully and wonderfully made heir to the throne that you are. Royalty in fact. Do you actually really see the truly blessed individual looking back at you in the mirror?

4. Have a conversation

I understand that some people feel that having a therapist Is the answer to everything. If you can talk to someone and tell them your problems than it makes a difference and in some ways, I agree. However, have you ever let out our thoughts to a great friend? Do you have someone you can trust? If you get sad and think no, then you are wrong. You can always turn to God with your problems. You don’t have to worry about what you say being repeated in gossip. You don’t have to worry about being judged for your thoughts and feelings. Get on your knees and let it out. He is a great listener. IT also will feel good to get it out your system to someone worth talking to.

5. Write it.

If you think you do not have anything worth writing about, sometimes letting out your emotions on paper creates the best stories. The way our thoughts operate on us is the way that a reader will look at what is written if you share it and feel the emotion ripping through the pages.  If you had a hard lived life, write a song about it. I am not sure about you but, my favorite Mary J Blige songs were the ones that she was singing sad songs. I could sing along to like the first five albums word for word. Then she started getting happy and the songs didn’t hit the same for me anymore. Some of the questions you may have that bubble in your heart, readers and listeners might be able to relate to because we all have baggage, songs and dances alike and across the breath of society, we are no different from each other in the fact that we all had a past that we jumped feet first into. The strain of the task might leave you exhausted because I often end up in tears writing when I do write but, it will help to experience a sort of clarity that you may not have had.

6. Yoga/Meditation

Yoga helps to experience deep breathing. I can honestly say that I don’t take deep breaths enough and not because I don’t want to but because my body was built this way and I mostly take shallow breaths while awake and while in resting mode. But, meditation hushes the overthinking. It makes you focus on your breathing. It brings you to the point of quiet of mind which is the only thing that never changes in a constantly changing world. Meditation helps to bring you into unity with yourself and also helps to correct your thinking. For 15 -20 minutes a day, if you focus on just your breaths, it can help to detox the clutter in your mind.

Enjoy Life

I hope that my words find you in good spirits as it was written as I sit back and process the beautiful message I received today at church as well as my dwelling on the first month and half that has left us in the 2017 year.

I attended two funerals already; one which was a double casket one for a friend of mine who lost his brother and mother in the same week. Days later, two other friends lost their mom, another friend an aunt and a plethora of others who have lost people already in 2017.

Life is so short and considering my friend cleaning out what is left of his recently departed, something to think about is the fact that things, physical or spiritual are just things. There is still so much life to live while we are in the land of the living. If lived with regret of what should’ve would’ve could’ve happened which again are just things, our days will be hard and we will suffer. But if lived with hope of what is to come, there is so much more promise than just the things. We have been kept for a reason. Never forget that!

I’d like to invite you to check out my song, Enjoy Life, about living and enjoying life regardless of our trials. Everything has an expiration date; things, situations, relationships, people and even our trials. But our internal joy is everlasting so don’t ever let go of it. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/qPCvcQLGd2o

Thank you for reading my blogpost. Have a wonderfully blessed day!