by Carolyn Dickman
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I guess I can’t please anyone today.” I had about a week of that…until I smacked myself up side the head and asked myself, “Where did you get the idea that you could accomplish an unrealistic expectation like that?”Creating Anxiety and Nervousness in Your Own Mind
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I bet she doesn’t like me. She looked at me funny.” I had about a week of that… until I asked myself if I was a mind reader. I had just created anxiety with an unrealistic expectation that no one could satisfy.Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “Gosh, he’s making me nervous.” I had a car trip like that recently…until I asked myself who decides how I feel. I decided it was ok to be nervous, my decision, when someone cruises off the side of the pavement at 70 miles per hour. Hey, I’m good but I’m human too!
Changing Feelings of Anxiety, Nervousness and Depression
“…No matter how badly you act, no matter how unfairly others treat you, no matter how crummy the conditions you live under are, you virtually always (yes, ALWAYS) have the ability and the power to change your intense feelings…” Albert Ellis, Ph.D. [How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything, YES Anything]“By learning to be secure with ourselves, we can eliminate the unnecessary pains, the trauma dramas of everyday life.” Susan McMahon, Ph.D. [The Portable Therapist]
Growing Weeds that Create Unnecessary Pain
Unnecessary pain, the pain we create from our insecurities, our wrong-headed thinking that leads to anxiety, fear, worry, and depression, grows like crabgrass. It creeps into every area of our life. When we lack worthy feelings about ourselves, we create fertile ground for the cultivation of all manner of weeds, the thoughts that grow into anxiety, fear, and depression. The weeds are called: indecisiveness, procrastination, jealousy, unkindness, controlling, over drinking, over eating, over spending, all those other “over” weeds.Weeding Out Negative Thoughts that Create Anxiety and Depression
It makes me ache to think of all the ways I have contributed to my unhappy days… what a waste. The days I was too concerned over how I looked, what I said, what someone else thought of me, what a waste of my precious-present moments. As I’m working on me, I still catch myself making some poor choices, but they are fewer and farther apart. Knowing how to recognize those thoughts help you weed out your anxiety, worry, and depression, roots and all.I am diligently dividing my time into three parts: God’s business, my neighbor’s business and my business. The things I have no control over are God’s business. What others think and do is my neighbor’s business. I am determined to mind my own business!
We can stay the way we are, or we can improve on what we are. It’s up to us. We choose. I choose a better life free form anxiety and depression that create so much chaos and unhappiness.
To our new growth,
Carolyn
