What Are You Feeding Your Mind Every Day?
Have you ever looked around in the summer and thought,…
- “I wish I looked like that in a bathing suit!”
- “She looks so happy. Why don’t I feel like that?”
Earlier this year, I shared how I’ve learned to pay attention to what I’m thinking, what I’m listening to and what I’m watching. I talked about how these things influence how we feel about ourselves and the life we have.
Over the last year, I’ve been learning that loving myself means not comparing who I am, what I look like or the things I do to other people. It means not trying to make myself “just right”, but accepting who I am.
The Problem
We spend so much time scrolling facebook and instagram and whatever the next new thing is, watching other people and their lives. Then we feel bad because our life doesn’t look like theirs.
Or we watch the news, whose entire focus is what’s going wrong in the world, repeating it over and over to keep the 24/7 news cycle going.
- This constant consumption of everything negative
- wanting what someone else has
- trying to make ourselves look like that influencer by doing everything she/he’s doing…
is exhausting.
It creates an internal conflict, like you’re always trying to be someone else.
And that kind of stress shows up in our bodies and in how we feel about our lives.
What I’ve Learned
A little over a year ago, I started meditating. When I started, I was terrible at it. I even found an app to help me because my mind bounced around so much I didn’t think I’d ever be able to focus it.
I committed myself to a daily practice, sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 20. In the beginning, it was usually on the shorter end. Now I have to set a timer so I don’t go past 20 min on a weekday morning.
This practice has had the biggest impact on how I feel day to day. Those changes didn’t happen fast, but the consistency in the work has made a world of difference. And once I got the hang of it, I found I really wanted to keep it up because of how good I felt afterward.
Now, a little over a year later, I can see how much of a difference it’s made. The changes were gradual, but one day I realized how much had really shifted for me.
The Shift
I’ve learned through meditation, reading books and just simple contemplation that while we can’t control everything, the outside world or other people, we do have influence on what we focus on, what we watch, read or who we hang out with and most importantly, how we respond to all of it.
We have more choice than we think in whether we hold onto things or let them go and focus on something else. That something else can be family, a pet, nature, or just quiet time to think. And that can make a real difference in how we feel day to day.
Practical Support
For me, this meant learning to look for the good in everyday things. I started noticing the beauty in things, even on a rainy day. When something went wrong, I tried to find the lesson in it. And I made time to do things that actually make me feel good.
I can truthfully say – it doesn’t always work. Sometimes, I just am sad or unhappy. So I just sit with it for a while, but not forever. I don’t brood or ruminate on what is making me unhappy. Life is just too short.
We won’t always be happy, but we can choose not to stay stuck in unhappy… and shift our focus back to what feels good.
Or I use them in simpler ways, like a relaxing bath, a foot soak, or an herbal facial steam. Sometimes these small acts of self-care make a difference.
Using herbs like chamomile, lavender, or rose for any of these can feel amazing. And sometimes these simple things are exactly what we need.
What would change for you if you started paying attention to what you’re feeding your mind each day?
