Simple Perspective Shifts: Pinnable Affirmations for Any Kind of Struggle
Note from Amy 5-24-17: This post has been edited to align with my current views on goals and fitness.
How many times have you caught yourself in the middle of a negative thought, fully aware of what you’re thinking and how powerful the pull of darkness is, and yet you still feel unable to reframe it?
One of the keys to success in any goal is becoming capable of taking those negative thoughts and restructuring them into ones that serves you in positivity and productivity. Allowing these negative thoughts to persist may incapacitate your drive that you've worked so hard for!
The process of reframing is quite simple, actually. The difficult part is remembering exactly how to reframe these thoughts so that you’re not just trying to get rid of them altogether (which doesn’t work); you’re redirecting the focus of your worries onto the WHY behind the struggle.
The purpose of this is to realize that you're not struggling for no reason; you're growing into the life of your creation, which is a difficult thing to do.
Your struggle serves a purpose, whether you're eeking your way through the last few reps of a hellacious workout, or you're putting one foot in front of the other to get through a tough breakup. You are creating your reality, and it's anything but passive.
It’s so easy to get stuck on those old, broken records that try to talk us into victimization and giving up. They come to us automatically and often occur in our subconscious, especially if we’ve been negative-talking ourselves our whole lives.
The next time these negative thoughts crop up, try reframing them with one of the ones below.
Find the Current Thought that plagues you the most often, and work on adopting the Perspective Shift in its place.
When you become aware of an automatic negative thought, take these steps:
- Stop what you're doing.
- Take a deep breath (maybe a few if you're feeling a lot of anxiety).
- Focus in on your Perspective Shift.
By shifting your focus, you will empower yourself to view your struggle as a challenge, not as an attack. Slowly, you'll take back the power in your life and realize that you can either fight against the necessary pain, or you can use it to your advantage.
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Current Thought: "It shouldn't be this hard."
Perspective Shift: "I struggle now so that it will one day be easy."
Your struggle serves a purpose. Remember that you must feel this now in order to feel ease later. What is hard at this point of your life will become the norm if you stick with it and allow the fire to mold you into a stronger person.
Let the pain do its job.
Current Thought: "I have to change my whole lifestyle? That's too much."
Perspective Shift: "To exceed my limitations, I must overcome the comfort of same."
It is your attachment to the comfort of "same" that keeps you from making change happen.
What you're doing now isn't creating the reality you want. If you want to live a different life, you must take different actions to create it.
Current Thought: "I don't think I can do this. I'm exhausted."
Perspective Shift: "You cannot rise from the ashes without burning up first."
A certain amount of struggle is necessary to rise from it into your new reality. It is how we learn to be grateful for the lives we create.
Without struggle, you will not treasure your life changes like you would if you worked for it. You wouldn't care about holding onto it. You wouldn't know the value of what you have after you earn it if you didn't earn it.
That said, allow yourself to rest now and again. It's supposed to be tiring, yes, but you deserve recovery time. It's actually in the recovery time that our bodies and minds truly get stronger.
Current Thought: "I shouldn't have to go through this. _____ doesn't work nearly as hard. It's not fair."
Perspective Shift: "Your body, your mind, your life is like no one else's. Stop comparing your journey to theirs."
My unique mind and body will respond differently than anyone else's. What is easy for others may not be so for me, and what is easy for me, may not be so for others.
Commit to challenging YOUR limits as necessary to create your own unique reality.
Current Thought: "I don't even know where to start or if I'm doing this right at all. I look stupid. I'm not good enough. I suck at this."
Perspective Shift: "Screw perfection. Just start."
The important thing is that I start at all. As long as I move forward, I am going in the right direction, no matter the pace.
Strong people are not born; they are self-made.
The more we start to realize that struggle is an essential part of a strong life - and the less we try to escape it - the sooner we can start embracing the present and creating our future as we envision it.Let me know how these perspective shifts work for you, and please feel free to pin away! :)For more visual inspiration, follow Strong Inside Out on Pinterest! Click here to check out our boards.Stay strong,Amy