Hey lovely human,

Your mind is your command center. Your entire being is important, obviously, but your mind is such a beautiful piece of treasure that if treated wrongly, you could harm other parts of your body. 

Anything that happens that is out of your control or in your control, your mind will be the first to react and then your body will follow.

Take a minute to do something that may make you feel silly, weird, or anxious. 

Tell your mind "Thank you."

Did you do it?

How did you immediately feel afterwards?

I know for me when I did it my shoulders relaxed, I felt a smidge happier and a smidge lighter. 

If it felt really weird to do, that's ok. We'll work on that. *wink wink*

Imagine how you would feel if you told yourself "thank you" more often? Or better yet, every day?

Think about it. Your body and mind do SO much for you. They're so good to you. So how do you treat them?

Do you treat them with love and respect? 

Or do you beat yourself up and think ugly thoughts? 

Your mind IS your command center. In order to feel peace in your mind you have to start by giving yourself grace.

Practice doing Mindful Transactions.

Take notice on how you are talking to yourself when you wake up and look in the mirror, and do it again when you get in bed to go to sleep.

If you believe you had an unsuccessful day, you will get in bed and beat yourself up for not doing more that day. (I am SO guilty of doing this.)

If you wake up in the morning and immediately look in the mirror and think negative thoughts about yourself, you will set yourself up for a day full of distaste. 

When you catch yourself beating yourself down, I encourage you to do these 4 things.

I call it a "Mindful transaction".

1. Breathe

2. Tell yourself "hello"

3. Pay yourself

4. Give yourself a tip 

Breathe - When you realize you're beating yourself up, pausing and breathing can help send your mind through a little "reset." 

Tell yourself "Hello" - You don't have to literally say hello. You can if you wish, but what I mean is take notice on where you are at mentally. Check in on yourself. 

Pay yourself - Pay yourself a compliment! You may have slipped a little bit, but your whole day hasn't fallen. 

Give yourself a tip - Teach yourself. Think of a way that you could do better next time, but praise the effort you put in. 

Example: Me saying to myself, "I hate the way I cooked this broccoli. Why am I so bad at making dinner." 

I catch myself thinking the negative thought, I breathe and I try again. "I actually made dinner today! Today was a hard day at work and I didn't want to cook dinner, but I still did. Sure, I've made better broccoli, but I don't usually steam it. I'm proud of doing something I don't usually do. Next time, I'll try to pull the broccoli out sooner so it doesn't get all mushy. Or maybe I'll invest in one of those steam basket thingies."

Congratulations, you just paid yourself.

You have the power to choose to get rich off of compliments or go broke by robbing yourself of kindness and grace. 

The best way to pay yourself is with kindness, love and grace... and doing that is 100% free. 

So why is it so hard to do?

Hmm. Maybe because the devil wants us to hate on God's creation as much as possible?

If your body is a TEMPLE of the HOLY SPIRIT (AKA GOD??)  then don't you think the devil - who HATES God - will try his hardest to get you to hate on yourself?? Don't you think he would feed you evil dreams, present evil situations, or try to feed you evil thoughts to get you to hate the thing that literally HOLDS the Holy Spirit? Don't you know any time you choose to show yourself love, grace and kindness, you are nailing a nail into satan instead of Jesus? 

Do yourself the favor and choose to pay yourself with a "mindful transaction" instead of beating up on the temple that is home to God's precious Holy Spirit. 

Start practicing grace, and through that your mind will live in peace. 

You get to create the life you want to live.

You get to live a life you love. 

You get to. 

And last but not least:

 

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8

To God be the glory forever and always. 

Rest in grace, and walk in peace. 

Love, Evelyn 

All Things Lovely Co.