371 I Am Encouraged Every Day | January 2018 Saturday Week 1

Synergistic Saturdays-#362  January 6th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I Am Encouraged Every Day

 

“I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day, and as nearly as possible reaching the high water mark of pure and useful living.”
~Booker T. Washington

 

Words are powerful, and the particular word or words you use might change the whole equation in how you make a goal or dream yours, or if it’s always just out of your reach.

 

In a previous podcast, I said the affirmation, “I find magic wherever I go.” And the reasons I said the word “find,” is because I believe in every moment there’s beauty and all we need to do is open our eyes and see what’s already there.

 

I usually don’t like to use the word find because it means that you aren’t in control of the thing you are seeking. You are looking to claim something in hopes that you might locate it someday. But for that particular affirmation, I wanted people to know that everything is magic…even the so-called normal, ordinary instances that happen all the time in your life. I prefer to say the word “create” instead of find, but in the previous podcast it wasn’t about us creating a great moment…it was about knowing the great moment was already created for us.

 

The reason I bring up word choice, is to help prove the power in the words that we decide to utilize in our lives. So, if I were to say I find encouragement or I create encouragement, which one sounds more powerful to you.

 

Maybe the issue of power comes from where the observer stands. If we think we need someone to cheer us on, to tell us why we’re good at something, or to help motivate us…then we are looking for encouragement outside of ourselves to get the energy to move.

 

However, if the observer is looking from within saying that I am in control of how I move, that I don’t need people or things to motivate me, I do that—then the observer doesn’t need to find anything. They are creating their energy themselves.

 

I was working with a life coaching student, and we were looking at the things that brought up her depression and kept her stuck in emotions she didn’t want to be in. I was hoping to help her become so aware of those places that weren’t in alignment with how she wanted to feel so that she could do something before the depression happened. The associations she made to certain things in her mind were deciding her emotions. Take for example; she told me that when she was home alone in her den, she felt depressed because all the kids were moved out of the house as they had grown older. And being divorced without a love interest in her life, the den was such a big area that she said it made her feel alone with all that space around her.

 

In our activity, we decided to call all the places, actions, or thoughts that brought upon depressive episodes or sadness…her red flags. And by her becoming aware of her red flags, meant that she could do something before the emotion became too overwhelming for her. It meant that the red flag wasn’t the cause of the sadness or depression…it was the warning system to let her know that her thoughts were processing things a certain way that wasn’t helping her.

 

I dealt with depression for a good portion of my younger life, and while things made me sad, or I felt hopeless, or even when I thought about suicide…it was I, who ultimately made myself sad..not the thing, person, or event. I decided how to process an event. I was the one who decided a situation was hopeless; I was the one who decided I couldn’t do anything to change it; and it was I, who kept coming back to thoughts that weren’t productive for myself. I had to change the way I processed those events to change the emotions that I associated with those events.

 

And so with my life coaching student, after she labeled and wrote down all of her red flags, I asked her another question: “What can you do to help yourself NOT get into those red flag areas?”

 

She thought for a moment and then began giving some solutions. She talked about going for a walk, not sitting in the den in the afternoon, not taking midday naps when she didn’t need them, having lunch with friends, working out, and I am sure she said a few more.

 

And I said, “those are all great things, but what will you do if you can’t do the thing you’ve decided upon? What if you can’t get to the gym at the moment, what if you can’t go on that walk right then, what if none of your friends are around to have lunch with you?” Now, this was more of a rhetorical question to get her thinking about seeing a deeper answer. It was to help her see that the solution was not in something external, but SHE was the solution.

 

Sure, working out, getting out of the house, hanging with positive friends, or going for walks are all awesome things to do…but still, they are physical things that we are seeking outside of ourselves to control how we feel. I wanted her to see she was the answer. I wanted her to see that the physical action was an after effect, it wasn’t the ultimate solution…it was part of the equation.

 

And maybe I’m getting off point since this podcast is about encouragement, but I think I’m hitting the head of the nail dead on by saying that the greatest encourager we will ever have in our lives will be ourselves. The greatest encouragement will be what we tell ourselves and where we focus our thoughts continuously. So if you’re seeking someone or something to encourage you, then you will always be in an endless pursuit to find a reason why you are doing something. You will always be in a place that is out of your control.

 

So how do we find that encouragement within then? Well, everyone’s different, so I can’t give you the cookie cutter equation, but maybe I can begin pointing you in the right direction. One of the biggest ways to be encouraged is to know yourself. When you know yourself, you can begin to know your purposes and your likes in life. When you know these things, it’s much easier to be encouraged as you find more ways to work towards them. When we don’t know ourselves, it brings on a lot of uncertainty; and uncertainty brings with it anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and even caution. And not that caution is a bad thing, but when you are uncertain…you walk on eggshells not wanting to do the wrong thing. But when you know yourself, when you have a directed purpose, it’s not that you shouldn’t be cautious…but it’s that you know what you want, and you’re more willing to jump into the things that align with that purpose. You’re more willing to move towards things that help enhance your already amazing feelings and emotions into something even bigger and better.

 

Encouragement can come from external sources, but when you find ways to be encouraged from within—you ‘ll find not only greater joy in life, but you’ll also find more ease upon the path you travel. Not because your path changed, but because you changed…which then changed your path. The turbulent turns and bumps in your path become straightaways just by the way you decided to think about them and see them. And as Booker said in his quote, encouragement can be created by people doing their level best every day while reaching to be pure and useful in their lives. So how useful are you in this life, and are you aware and living in alignment with your purposes?

 

Today’s Personal Commitment:

What are your red flags? What are the things that are keeping you from being happy, that are keeping you from your purposes, and that are keeping you stuck? And once you write them down, write down what you’ll do to deal with those red flags?

 

Figure out what you need to do physically…whether it is to create a fitness habit, to have a list of friends to call or hang out with, or even places to go that bring you peace. And then look inside yourself, go deeper and ask how you can change the way you see those red flags. How can you be the change instead of needing something else to change you? How can you be encouraged within every day to be a better person, a happier person, and a person in line with their purpose? How can you be a person who doesn’t need external encouragement? Sure, external encouragement is always nice, but it’s my hope that you’ll have come so far in your growth that you’ll see you won’t need it to reach where you’re going.

 

I Am Encouraged Every Day

 

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: chris@strongwithin.com  phone:865-219-3247

 

 

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
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