{This is part of our Truthy Tuesday series over at The Maven Circle, where we openly share our struggles and thoughts around a different topic each week. Join us in getting truthy on your own blog, and we'll link up and spread the love!}
I have so many mind gremlins to contend with up in that noggin of mine.
You know what those are- the negative, nasty things we tell ourselves about our abilities, about who we are. And all of those mean things we tell ourselves are so SO totally wrong most times, but we have such a skewed perspective when we're stuck in our heads that we start to believe what they're saying.
Some of my many mind gremlins that like to come out and play:
- one is that I'm "too shy", definitely too shy to go up and talk to a stranger, to feel comfortable in a crowd or to speak in front of one!
- I have a problem believing anyone is interested in what I have to say, or that they find value in it in anyway. I've always doubted that any of my words are worthwhile.
- I worry about the outcome of things more than the process of doing the thing and that starts the anxiety and stressing out
- I do care what (some) people think and want to live up to whatever their perception/expectation is of me, and I often 2nd guess whether I can/do/ever will
- And then there are my own expectations of myself which are basically beyond human and leave me feeling disappointed in myself, guilty for not getting it all done, or not by now, or not doing "enough"
And I could go on and on...
There was a time when I was so consumed with what those voices told me, I was convinced that my amazing, lucky life was more of a burden, cause it felt like one just trying to get up every morning and keep all the balls in the air and keep everyone happy and just get through the day, day after day.
I ended up overwhelmed, on the brink, and needing a serious change because I realized, I wasn't really considering- what about my own happiness?
Our mind gremlins can convince us we're not deserving of happiness, or that we'll find it somewhere "out there" if we just conquer the next accomplishment, and the next one, and the next one...
But that feels so empty and unsatisfying in the long run because your own happiness is only going to come from within. And a large part of that happiness is going to come from battling your mind gremlins!
My recommended tool for battle: Meditation
It's life-changing, seriously. Even 10-15 minutes a day can be life-changing.
It's also really difficult to start trying to do too, yes I'll give you that. You know what helped me in the beginning? Guided meditations- they help you stay focused and make it not so difficult to sit there with yourself and your thoughts for a few minutes. Here are some to try if you're interested:
- I recorded a "present moment" guided meditation for The Maven Circle! You can get it free with sign-up to our inner circle- I've had so many amazing, positive responses about it. Hope you enjoy it!
- I also like these free guided meditations by Davidji at the Chopra Center- most 10 minutes or less
- And these by Tara Brach, most 15-30min long. She also has a great introduction on how to meditate.
Meditation has not only helped me lessen the gremlin banter, but not heed it anymore. By helping me gain distance from those thoughts, it gave me perspective enough to see that these things I've been telling myself over so many years are NOT TRUE!
You are what you say you are. You are what you think you are. If you can shift both your thinking and the verbiage you use to talk about/to yourself, you'll be able to make some headway in the mind gremlin battle!
Meditation is one way. Getting out of your head and into your body can happen in many forms tho. The key is to realize that you don't have to believe what those mind gremlins say. You don't have to define yourself in limiting ways. You have the choice to change the way you think and to shift into a new perspective!
You have the choice to do battle with those gremlins! And if you need help, our Catalyst Course has an arsenal of tools and support to help you do just that!
We just opened up registration for the next round of the course, to start Aug 13th! We'd love to help you dig in and identify what's going to make you really deep down happy and how to start breaking down all the mental and emotional obstacles along that path to your most awesome life.
The change starts from within- it really does, as cliche as it is. I learned firsthand that simply by changing my relationship to my thoughts (we need some distance, us two) I'm able to feel differently about who I am and what I'm capable of. I'm able to tell those nasty gremlin buggers to shut the eff on up, and it feels invigorating!
I still have a lot of gremlins to fend off or ignore, and they do still get the better of me sometimes, but knowing that I have the power to break through them inspires more confidence in myself than anything else.
You have the power to break-through them too! It's in you, it's in us all.
Are you doing battle with some mind gremlins right now? How do you fend them off? Or are they getting the better of you?
Share, open up, I'd love to hear in the comments below, or join us with your own Truthy Tuesday post!
