Even Your Worst Day is Only 24 Hours

As many of you know, one of the "activities" I have been into recently is keeping a bullet journal (or BuJo for those in the know!) and one of the items I decided to add was a mood tracker.

As I work in mental health and oversee a lot of studies where the participants are asked to track their moods nightly for menstrual symptoms, I've often been curious about tracking my owns moods but have always been too lazy too wrapped up in other activities to organize it. Therefore when I found out that BuJos have no rules (??!??!??!??! - terrifying and freeing all the the same time) I decided that adding a mood tracker was the perfect first edition.

As you can see from the picture I've been tracking for 2 months and while I'm still a little bit all over the place, my good days overwhelmingly outnumber the bad. And bad "days" don't generally last a whole day - just parts of one. I really wish I had started this bullet journaling in advance of starting 21 Day Fix Extreme again because I honestly feel like looking back I had a lot more "meh" or :-/ days and now things are mostly looking good!

I will say that I have done a lot of work to improve my mood since August began. As I keep putting myself out there more and more it's necessary to have a positive frame of mind because if you don't, it's super easy to focus on the negatives, the what-ifs, the potential for failure and so on. I realized almost immediately that if I was going to take the leap and learn to fly on the way down that I was going to have to believe (like, REALLY REALLY REALLY BELIEVE) that I would succeed and that positive things would come my way. I honestly owe that mindset shift to my improved mood.

It's incredibly freeing to let go of overthinking, catastrophising, worry and doubt. And apparently, all the real estate those things were taking up in my brain were put on the market and I was allowed to put whatever kind of thoughts I wanted there. So I replaced them with thoughts of self-love, growth, commitment, pride (which is different from conceit, mind you) and most importantly the intention to allow those positive vibes to flow outward to everyone else I come in contact with.

So long story short, I'm thrilled with the outcome thus far and am very much looking forward to the continued upswing! I wonder how many :-D days I will be able to rack up next month?!

xoxo, my loves! And remember, always be a goal digger ;) 

 

21 Day Fix Approved Cowboy Chili

Had some people ask about my recipe for my 21 Day Fix Approved Cowboy Chili so here is is for you! This chili is hearty and delicious and the best part, it is completely within the 21 day fix plan! Woohoo! I serve my chili with Greek yogurt and shredded cheddar cheese but you can garnish it with whatever you like!

This makes 8 servings and if you serve it as suggested, each serving coming in at:

-1 red
-1 green
-1 yellow
-1 blue

Enjoy!

But what if you fly?

 

 

 

This quote has really resonated with me recently... 

 

By nature, I'm a fairly cautious person. I typically make the safe choice, take the time to weigh out tons of pros and cons, usually overthink a decision to within an inch of it's life and in the end if I'm not > 95% sure it's the "right" choice, I will likely say no. I can probably count the number of times that I have taken a leap of faith on one hand. Just like the quote starts out with, "but what if I fall?" has more often then not been my motto. 

 

But I have to be honest, using that level of scrutiny to make decisions is freakin' tiring. Slowly but surely when I made the decision to stop overthinking (which, believe me, came with it's own set of pros and cons - HA!) I was terrified of all the negative possibilities that could happen and spent very little time thinking about all amazing things that were possible. 

 

But I knew if I was going to stop worrying about falling I was really going to have to surrender those negative thought patterns and start focusing on all of the amazingly positive outcomes that might come my way. If I didn't, I knew it would never work. 

 

And although it's only been about a month since I made this mental shift, it's amazing to me how many opportunities have literally popped up out of nowhere. And the more I keep believing they will come, like magic, THE MORE THEY COME. It quite literally feels like I've had a magic wand in my pocket for 29 years and I just recently learned how to move mountains with it. I can't believe I wasted so much time clipping my own wings. 

 

So all that being said, instead of worrying if you might fall, why don't you start focusing on all of the incredible things that will happen to you if it turns out that you fly?