Exhale the negative thoughts, Inhale the beautiful qualities.

 

Overlooked strengths:

If there is unhappiness in you, first you need to acknowledge that it is there. But don’t say “I’m unhappy”. Unhappiness has nothing to do with who you are”- Eckhart Tolle

 (You are not your thoughts)

Exercise: Take a moment to look at some of your core strengths. Close your eyes for a moment, think about how you see yourself. Exhale the negative “thoughts/ opinions” about yourself and inhale the words of the great qualities you do possess, own them, hold them in your heart and you’ll manifest great things. I promise you.

Many of us are our worst own critics. Whether it stemmed from a childhood of being told something about yourself (your greedy, lazy, moody etc) or a society that doesn’t accept a declaration of selflove.

 In my experience growing up in Ireland, I found receiving compliments was difficult and it was seen as being “full of shit” to accept a compliment with a simple thank you or to acknowledge the non physical good qualities.

Many of us begin to focus on our weaknesses; particularly what we see physically in the mirror. One of the best pieces of advice my mother ever gave me was to never tell people about what you dislike in yourself because people will then see that in you. It’s great advice for the society we live in but why not work through what you dislike about yourself? Begin to accept the “faults” and focus on the strengths within yourself.

I spent years focusing on the faults; laziness, greed, being unhappy with my body, being emotional, "over-sensitive" and deep and the more I focused on these “weaknesses/ faults” the more they manifested into frustration, overthinking, moodiness and seeing people that looked like they were achieving things, “milestones on an imaginary ladder” in a negative light. I no longer see these traits as negative anymore ESPECIALLY being emotional, sensitive or deep. If anything, I now see these as strengths. I’m beginning to handle my emotions better and I may have had some of these qualities within me but now have realized those qualities don't define who I really am.

The more open I have become with the “emotional depth” within me, the more I've been attracting people into my life that understand and love these qualities within me and it's amazing to find so many like minded people, I have also attracted love and very real beautiful conversations into my life. Something I’ve always yearned for, but have previously walked around so guarded with an uninviting ego.

As I grew older, “matured” and began to grow confidence on the surface level, I began to start feeling happy for people achieving their goals in life but then all of a sudden “shit hit the fan” and I began to feel frustrated at life again, I felt pressure and went through a “quarter life crisis”. Thinking; what now?

So that’s when darkness crept up on me and after the physical anxiety of it and the inability to feel any emotion at all but fear (physically) for a period of time; I have began realizing all I did was bury the negative thoughts about myself and they manifested into something much worse, I began to feel pressure surrounding life and the future then all the negative qualities began to surface again. The big difference this time is that there is no “poor me” attitude. 

This is the time to let go, be the human I’m supposed to be, let go of negative opinions the ego/ personality/ thoughts and begin to believe in myself, and as long as you're kind at the core, who cares what other people think? I don’t need to do all the things I once thought was an expectation of me; go back to university, get on the property ladder, find a boyfriend, move back to Ireland.

Those things will happen if and when they’re supposed to happen. It’s time to start living, letting go of the ego and enjoying the present, stop being a sponge soaking up the negative energies, expectations and values of other personas and believe in the beautiful qualities that can be shared with the world, even they don't hit societies conventional life milestones.

Journaled strengths:

Mostly seeing the good in people

Wanting the best for people

Being helpful

Easily connecting and making friends

Adventurous

Open to love

Hard working

Loves a party (April 2021: Lol, maybe not like I used to)

Dancing

Good at cuddles

Smart

Finding intuition

Sensitivity

Depth

Note: Don’t write the negative qualities in your journal, exhale them, be aware. Let go.