Back on my 35th birthday I talked about how I was planning a lovely ritual for myself – it ended up being very potent, and some of the stuff that came up for me on that day really helped to start shaking off the limiting beliefs and conditioning thoughts that were keeping me small.
I actually pulled this Gabby Bernstein Oracle Card that day and it couldn’t have been more appropriate:
It’s been just over a month since my birthday but what I’ve noticed has been really interesting and I wanted to share this because I feel like there are a few useful lessons in it.
First of all I’ve been behaving differently to how I would do usually and, to be honest, if it wasn’t for my journaling practice I probably would have missed these things. It’s a good example of how keeping a journal can be helpful.
I’ve been wearing things I would never usually wear, things that might make people look at me (shocker!) – like leopard print trainers and tops that show off a little more skin than I’m used to. After a few months of not wearing my red lippy, I’m enjoying wearing it again.
I’ve been doing things like getting myself to the front of the crowd at concerts and events which believe me when I say is NOT usually something I’d do – even when I was a teenager at those kind of things I hated being at the front as I would get really anxious.
I’ve been pushing myself to have more days working from a coffee shop and joining in a yoga class – again the normal for me would be to work from home all week and let the loneliness build up.
I’m also talking more openly about my spiritual practice on social media and figuring out the best way for me to engage with social media while also keeping myself sane.
Now, I realise these might sound like really little insignificant things but to me they are huge! Taking the time to notice these things is the difference between seeing myself as making progress or just believing that nothing had changed.
I guess what I’m getting at is the importance of recognising the little wins and the small shifts that always add up to the bigger whole.
Everyday we are changing – we just need to make ourselves aware of it and train ourselves to place the focus on the positive (not to dismiss the negative, but just to even up the balance as most of us tend to place more focus on negative things in our lives).
The way I work on this is through using something called a positive aspects journal. I keep mine as part of my bullet journal spread (I use an A4 note pad and use a double page spread each day for plenty of room). All you do is write down the positive progress you are making towards any goals you might have – or any evidence you see that suggests your goal is close to completion, or that you’re changing. Some days I’ve really struggled to find positive things, but the more I challenged myself to look for the evidence, the more often it shows up.
The more work I do around being wholehearted the more I get brought back to this awareness of myself, how I feel, what I want, the things I’m doing and what I’m starting to see show up in my life.
Why not give keeping a positive aspects / evidence journal a try? How often do you notice your little wins? How often do you celebrate them?
I started really noticing the little wins about two weeks ago and I love feeling how I grow. I think it especially helps people who always (used to) put others first!