3 Thriving Thoughts For Hard Days [Episode 306]

We’ve had an intense few months over at our house, and it has taken its toll. But the wonderful thing is that with breakdowns come breakthroughs. Today, I’m sharing three new Thriving Thoughts (what I call the new way of thinking I like to hold onto) I’ve had that are helping me in this season. 

Whether these thoughts resonate with you or not, I hope that when you are struggling, you will follow this pattern that allows you to find more empowering and helpful thoughts.

Pattern for Creating Thriving Thoughts:

1. Notice when you are feeling negative emotions and uncover the thoughts you are thinking. This takes practice and may take some pondering.

2. Write down the unhelpful thought

3. Pray for a paradigm shift - how can you look at this situation differently? What is another way to think about it? For me, prayer is essential because only God truly understands my brain and how it would be helpful for me to approach my own struggles

4. Ponder better ways of thinking. Write down the new thriving thoughts. 

Here are three new Thriving Thoughts that have come from this season:

1. Focus on who God is and what He can do instead of my circumstances. 

I was caught in a loop of repeating our challenging circumstances. I noticed when reading scriptures that there are two groups of people: those who focus on the circumstances and those who focus on who God is and what God can do. (Moses and the Israelites are a great example of this). I’m now working on repeating who God is and what God can do - looking up instead of getting caught in the struggle.

2. I don’t have to feel good too…

One of the struggles I have about not feeling good physically or mentally is that it’s hard to be the mom I want to be. To be lighthearted, gentle, and patient is such a challenge when carrying stress, pain, and exhaustion (can you relate?) Then I feel guilty for not being those things and kind of mad that I’m dealing with pain, stress, and exhaustion (brains are fun). No, I’m even grumpier. But one day during this cycle, I had a wonderful Thriving Thought pop into my mind (inspiration, I’m sure): “I don’t have to feel good to smile.” And then I realized that applied to pretty much anything. I don’t have to feel good to be patient, lighthearted, make dinner, play a game - add your own. This was incredibly empowering. It would be easier if I felt good, but I don’t have to feel good to make the choice to behave the way I want to behave.

3. I can do one small thing that will make a difference today. 

I find it incredibly easy to get overwhelmed when we are in hard seasons. Energy and time allotment for regular tasks get taken up by different things. The house gets out of hand, and I don’t have loads of capacity to deal with it. Multiply this by a few days or weeks, and running away can seem like a good idea. But you know what? One small thing makes a HUGE difference. I sat down with my daughter and sorted through a pile of papers and cleared a shelf and we both felt on top of the world. And it gets some momentum going in the right direction. And then I can do it again tomorrow. A five-minute effort multiples over days, and you can absolutely see progress.

What Thriving Thoughts carry you through hard seasons?