Skip to main content

Retrain My Brain With YouTube - A Six Part Series - Day One



I've set a goal. It's not a big goal or particularly difficult, but I have a habit of quitting what I try to start so I thought if I wrote it all down I would push through.

I listen to a lot of positivity and self-motivational videos, talks and podcasts, but this video hit hard to home. I like to believe everyone is on a journey and I'm at this point in mine where I believe, like truly believe, I deserve happiness and success. I deserve to work hard at something and actually complete it. I deserve to not abandon a project once it starts going well because I'm afraid of success or don't feel I'm worthy of success.




So I made a commitment sitting on the floor of my office meditation/prayer room: I would listen to this video every day for 6 more days. I wanted to see if it would penetrate my consciousness and if the messages would ingrain themselves in my mind. I'll post my updates and may even do a vlog about my experience and how this impacts my soul journey.

Day One - Saturday 

I woke up this morning knowing my weekend was jam packed. My immediate thoughts were of dread. Dread of the social interaction, dread of rushing from one place to another, dread of having to leave my comfortable apartment and venture out into the world instead of spending the day in bed watching Netflix with my cat.

After a few minutes I caught myself. I reminded myself of this challenge and tried to find gratitude. As cheesy as it sounds...I felt better and more in control of myself.

I listened to the video while I was in the shower and washing my face. Did I give it my full attention, no, but I did take something big away from it: the idea that the biggest way to not succeed is to not get started. 

If I don't even give this weekend a chance of being fun, then how can it be? So I'm trying to stay positive by focusing on the positives. As much as I have social anxiety, I know it doesn’t flare up around the people I’ll be seeing this weekend. I also know that after spending time with this group of friends I always feel recharged and happier. I have to stop letting anxiety keep me from fulling appreciating my social connections.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why do People Stay With Abusive Parents?

The sad thing about abuse is it's all about training an individual to believe that without their abuser they're nothing. Abuse teaches the victim that they'll fail without the abusers hand guiding them through every situation. Although I was extremely depressed, always anxious and the most miserable I had been in my life, here are the reasons I stayed with my parents for as long as I did: The world is a bad place My parents lived by the mantra that everyone that isn't our family is out to get you. This, compounded by the fact that my mother would say one thing, but mean another, meant I felt I could never understand people. I couldn't protect myself in a situation and this of course made me even more scared of people. It got a point that even our extended family was conniving and not to be trusted. Isolation is a common and effect tactic in abusive relationships. I am the worst person that has ever lived My mother would take the smallest thing and turn ...

How to Overcome a Fear of Confrontation

When something nice or beautiful happens I always have the same thought: life is a funny thing. In these moments I feel so connected to everything in the universe and am so grateful to all the moving parts that had to come together to give me this exact moment. Usually these moments happen when I'm surrounded by friends, family or when I'm taking a solo walk through nature. On the other hand, sometimes I feel like the universe is conspiring against me. I feel as if no matter what I do or say nothing is going to work out for me. There is nothing outside of the pain and anxiety I feel in that moment. These may seem like two extremes, maybe they're only my extremes, I don't know, but I know a time when my anxiety shoots through the roof.  When I’m trying to express myself There is something about asking people for anything, especially to spend time with me, that makes me super uncomfortable. As a child of abuse you learn that your wants/needs/emotio...

I'm a Survivor of Child Abuse, not a Victim

I'm a survivor, not a victim. I'm not weaker because of my abuse. It doesn’t make me weird, strange or frankly even unique. It's made me stronger and this is something I struggled with for a long time. I felt like my childhood made me lesser of a person than everyone else. I blamed it for everything. My social anxiety - abuse. My depression – sucky childhood. My poor social support system – bad parenting. My relationship to my extended family – angry parents. My financial situation – sadness. Victim. Victim. Victim. Poor Sussan. A change of mindset can work wonders on changing the world around you. You become in control of the situation. You control your story and let’s face it – when your parents are abusive control is something you’ve barely felt before. Once I started seeing myself as a survivor and less (I still slip into victim mode here and there) I felt a sense of empowerment. I may not have had the beautiful family life that you see on te...