Yesterday, as I was walking home, I spotted a garden overflowing with these humble grape hyacinths (picture below). I stopped to savour the moment. They reminded me of the garden in front of my childhood home in rural Romania. Happy memories of the time spent hunting snakes and bugs there flooded my mind. I took a picture of the flowers to be able to reawaken those memories and celebrate them any time I wanted to.
Maintaining a positive mental state takes practice. The more you integrate such moments of celebration into your life the better you will be at spotting such opportunities and allowing them to brighten your entire day.
Today, I’m celebrating three little yet immensely transformational things:
- I finished my 14-day Content Challenge with Caroline Leon, an ethical business coach. During this time, I produced content, started my blog, and for the first time in my life I actively contributed to our online group discussions without feeling stressed.
- Having seen that I was holding back during the first week, I used some of my own therapy practices to improve things, but to my surprise I completely healed the social anxiety that had plagued me for as long as I could remember. From then on, I started to collaborate and communicate with ease, and as a result, I have made new connections and learned a lot on the way.
- I have just finished my first month of stonewalking, which literally means walking up and down on the slippery and uneven stony shore for 40 minutes, twice a day. This terrain exercises the deep muscles around my spine making them stronger. It has already helped me walk more confidently, given me more stamina, and significantly reduced the pain. Since my spinal surgery three years ago, I have just had my first 10 days without shooting pain! That’s a new record.
I used to think of little things as unworthy of celebration, because I focussed on what I should have or could have achieved; other times, I compared myself to others. In both cases I came up short, so I was never motivated to do more, if anything I was demotivated.
Now, I practice looking at the good things and celebrating them, and that does motivate me to continue and achieve even more. If you haven’t tried it, give it a try. Let me know how you get on.
