Treat others the way you want to be treated.
For most of us, this was one of the first lessons we learned in school. Or maybe daycare. I know I learned it as soon as I was old enough to understand what it meant; be nice and others will be nice back. Act like an asshole, and... well, you know the rest.
My entire life, I have done my best to follow this adage. Of course, some people missed the day this valuable lesson was taught in school - we have all encountered them. "Negative Nancy" or "Debbie Downer", always with a raincloud over their head. The insecure, emotionally injured, overly anxious, utterly unbalanced people that seem to suck the joy right out of a room. A naysayer, always looking for the dark, the drama, and the downside of anyone and everything in their paths.
At first, it's something you can brush off. They must be having a bad day. I'm not going to let it get to me. Can't get me down!
Then it starts to seep into your very being, like a dark ink stain on your favorite shirt, until you find yourself scowling for no reason and feeling the Negativity Knot deep in the pit of your stomach. Why is she looking at me like that? Ugh, that shirt is so ugly. She's too fat for that. Why can't I be that confident to wear whatever I want? I really suck. Why do I even bother?
So on and so forth.
The worst part is, once you are tainted by that ugly ink of Negativity, you then become a pen yourself, staining others in your wake.
The quote at the beginning of this post is from the movie called "The Secret" (you can find it if you search it on Youtube.) It is an excellent watch, and I recommend it to anyone. We watched a clip of it in the last Herbalife coach's meeeting I went to a few weeks ago. The basic theory?
You guessed it - the Golden Rule.
What I found interesting, though, was it wasn't in relation to others, as was taught to us in gradeschool. It was in relation to yourself.
Trippy, right? How does that even work?
The basic principle is this: treat yourself the way you want to be treated, send out positive vibes into the universe in everything you do, and the universe will give you that positive energy in return.
For example, thinking "I don't want to be fat anymore" is actually a negative idea. You are drawing attention to what you don't want, therefore opening doors of energy for negativity to come through. How many of you have said this? All of us at some point, I'm sure. And what does it do for your well being to think that way?
Not a damn thing.
It perpetuates the negative feelings you have for your weight, thus causing you to spiral deeper into feeling negative overall and continuing the cycle. Instead, you have to change your thinking to positive, such as "I want to lose weight," or "I want to get healthy." Take it a step further, and affirm things about yourself you want to be true, or already know to be true.
"I am beatiful"... "I love myself"... "I deserve to be happy"... "I am perfect just as I am"... "I have a killer ass"... "I am grateful for my health" etc. etc.
Go beyond the physical - what are you good at? What are your goals? Where do you want to be in a year, 6 months, next week? Visualize, verbalize, conceptualize, and actualize! It's all about your mindset, and positive thinking is the biggest step towards getting what you want in life.
This is something I have really begun working on in the past month. I have always been "that girl" - heavier than all my friends, taller than any other girl in my social circle. The boys didn't look at me like they looked at other girls, probably because I could beat most of them up until Sophomore year of high school. Even then, I was seen as a "buddy", an athletic tomboy who wasn't "sexy" or "pretty" or "hot" in the conventional sense. I carried that weight, was tattooed with that negativity ink, throughout the majority of my adolescent and young adult life. It wasn't until the past year that I've really worked on letting go of what I "should" look like and embraced what I am - a badass, beautiful, brilliant, breathtaking woman who is not defined by how others view and evaluate me on a scale of 1-Megan Fox (or Scarlett Johanson... I've always thought she was a babe.)
It's a struggle. Anything worth having is. Positive thinking is a lifestyle change, just like changing your eating habits or exercise routine. It is part of the total wellness package, and something you must strive to achieve even through the tough, awful, overwhelming times where you just want to lay down and quit. It's something you have to fight for every. Single. Day. Until it becomes routine, and then you are suddenly finding positivity and gratitude in everything you do, everything you see, and everyone you know.
So, now I challenge you! A simple exercise in gratitude... right now, stop and think of three things your are grateful for.
No, really think about it. Picture it.
Feel the fire in your chest? That burning at the edges of your ribcage that feels like it's going to explode? That's graditude. That's potential, positivity, and purpose. All that lives inside of you. Every single second of every single day.
Challenge yourself to do this exercise once a day, whenever you think of it. Whenever you need it. Take note of the changes happening around you once you start, because they will happen. In little sparks here and there, so small you might not even notice them if you weren't looking. They are there, and they will continue to grow. A fire is inevitable when you rub two sticks together long enough, right?
It's amazing the fire you can ignite with a little bit of gratitude.
