Painfully Good
If you have liked or loved someone, you've experienced the feeling of pain. Pain comes in all shapes and sizes. It is fluid. It comes and goes. When we move out of pain we may quickly forget what the feeling of pain was for. What it was connected to. But pain can be a great teacher. Part of one's gratitude plan is to challenge ourselves to remember when we felt pain. Remember the "why" behind it. Most importantly, to recall, with the gift of hindsight, what was the gift that came out of that emotion. That is true gratitude. If you are of the belief that life is a lesson to take and learn from - the good, the bad, the not-so-pretty, then the true gift is when we learn what we pained for and then move forward and without needing a re-do. The challenge is not to get stuck in pain and there are times when we do. Lingering resentment, feeling heavy-hearted toward something or someone, resistant to take action are all indicators that we have lingering pain and may be stuck within it. Just like our thoughts that can be habit-forming, so too, can feelings. It can be familiar and comfortable to get used to a feeling and overtime, we naturally do. It is not generally a conscious decision. If you continue to hold onto it longer than necessary, you are expending a lot of energy that could instead be channeled into making your life experiences more positive. If you are in pain today, whether your pain is from childhood or from an experience last week, see if you can give it room to move. Your self-doubt will make you think twice about giving it up but ask yourself what would it mean for you to offload it? What action would you be able to step in to without it? What would it mean to give it up? To let it go. What would be on the other side of feeling pain? What do you want to feel instead? Now go out there and make it a great day for yourself ~ Until soon, Joanne P.S. ~ Do you know of someone who is allowing their self-doubt to get the best of them? My free e-book is waiting to be downloaded from my website www.joanneroyerphd.com. "5 Initial Steps to Kick Self-Doubt to the Curb". Photo credit - Pexels