Happy Friday, everyone! As someone who loves the idea of keeping a journal but struggles with the act of actually doing so, I'm hopeful that this blog will help me write more. So I introduce to you the first "Follow-Up Friday."
In case you're reading this and know very little about me as a person, I have a very anxious brain. I have a running joke with my husband where whenever an anxious thought pops into my head, I'll almost immediately say "uh oh, the intrusive thoughts are intruding," and this helps me to take a step back and recognize the thought for what it usually is most of the time - irrational.
That being said, over the years I've learned to gain an appreciation for my anxiety, especially in my married relationship, because most of the time it's the one to thank for getting bills paid on time (amongst other things). And at their core, those thoughts and feelings are trying to keep me safe. However, when those thoughts are a constant occurrence, life becomes exhausting and I fear I'm not living it to its fullest.
Today I was reading about the central thesis of Dr. Rick Hanson, who has written several books on the science of positive psychology. His main idea is that by fully immersing ourselves in positive thoughts and experiences on a daily basis, even the ones that are seemingly insignificant, we can slowly change our brain's default setting from negative to positive. In the words of Dr. Hanson, "you're not looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, but rather correcting your brain's tendency to look at it [the world] through smog-tinted ones."
This idea really resonated with me, because everyday I have so many anxious thoughts that cloud my vision and on particularly hard days, threaten to consume me. When I think about moments in my life where I've felt indescribable peace, they were also some of the hardest and most miserable periods of my life. And yet, I was able to find so much peace because I was keeping a gratitude journal in which I tried to write down at least three things everyday that I was grateful for, no matter how small. I really think God helped open my eyes to those positive moments as I strived to do so, and I was reminded of how He is the Prince of Peace.
So that's another goal of these Follow-up Fridays; to help me immerse myself in those tiny positive moments and practice gratitude for them.
This past week was a long one, but a good one. I'm a "big sister" mentor through my local Big Brothers Big Sisters of America chapter, and I've been matched with the same little sister for a little over a year now. Last Saturday I went to her flag football game to support her, and she did such an amazing job! It was also really nice to have a chance to get to know her mother more, which is something I haven't been able to do very well.
We went out to breakfast afterwards, just the two of us, and then took a free archery class at a local museum. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and seeing her smile made my whole day. Later, I went to a local cafe with a good friend of mine. It's brand-new, and I am honestly so ecstatic to have a local cafe open up near us that is open until pretty late. That's basically unheard of in this town, which has always struck me as weird considering it's a college town. That experience was really special, too, because since moving here in December of 2022 I feel like I've had a really hard time making friends. It's been very isolating, and while I'm extremely grateful to have my husband here with me, who is my best friend, I think it's very important to have some close girl friends, at least for me.
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I helped out at an activity night for the younger girls in my church. We watched Spookley the Square Pumpkin. I'd never seen it before, but it was actually really cute. If you haven't seen it, it's about a pumpkin named Spookley who is shaped like a square rather than being round. He's teased and taunted by the other pumpkins in the patch. When he participates in their version of the Olympics, he loses pretty terribly in every event. However, later on when a storm terrorizes the pumpkin patch, Spookley uses his unique shape to save the day and overcome his feelings of inadequacy.
Yes, it was super silly, but I really liked the overall message. If you read my last blog post, then you'll know I touched on how I sometimes feel very inadequate in life. I really liked how Spookley did not go on to somehow win all of the "Jack-O-Lympics" events. He lost, and he lost pretty badly. Like wow, I had secondhand embarrassment over here. And yet, that cute square pumpkin did not let the disappointment win - he used what made him unique to save the day and realized what a blessing his uniqueness was.
I think sometimes we accidentally make promises to people that end up potentially hurting them in the long run. Like, "you'll definitely win" or "they would be a fool not to vote for you!" which could end up establishing unrealistic expectations and inviting disappointment when perhaps it doesn't end up working out that way. Like this movie portrayed, you might not always win, and that's okay. What's important is what you do afterwards.
Man... kids movies just hit different sometimes.
I hope y'all have a great week and thanks for reading!
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