"Our lives are the stories we tell ourselves." (Gina Trapani)
This evening I was reading the Happiness Project blog, and I was struck by the above quote. Gina went on to say, "I love hearing people cast a positive spell over themselves and say things like 'This is going to be great. I am so lucky. What a beautiful day. I'm so looking forward to this. . . . Look at how cool this is!' You can tell a lot about people by the casual remarks they make."
I used to tell myself there were lots of things I couldn't do, lots of skills I just didn't have. For example, when I was a teenage wallflower I spent years wishing I had my mom's gift for being warm and friendly with everyone. Then one day Mom explained that she was once a shy violet, too, but in her twenties she made the decision to be more outgoing, and she's been working at it ever since.
Her words were a revelation to me. I realized if she could evolve from shy to outgoing, I too could develop positive traits that didn't seem to come naturally to me. Of course, those changes don't happen overnight, but I've definitely noticed changes in my life since I began saying "I can and I will" instead of "I can't."
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2 comments:
i think that's an essential part that we have to learn in life...that we have a choice about who we are and how we look at and respond to the world.
my mom's been trying to teach me this lesson forever. sure others do stinky stuff to us...but they can't MAKE us be angry/hurt/sad... what's going on around us does not determine who we are.
i continue to struggle with this everyday. it's so much easier to be grouchy and whiney when i ache and things aren't going my way. it's easy to brush off snapping at the kids, because they weren't listening. actually choosing who i am going to be is much harder.
i guess i still need my mom to send me to my room sometimes.
and, we can't overlook the necessary power of prayer and the irreplaceable influence of the spirit...
Eleanor Roosevelt said no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. I think you (and she) are right - it's so important to remember that we can't always control our circumstances, but we can control how we respond, and thus, who we are.
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