Find the Bright Side of Life

Everyone has heard this phrase.

"Be Grateful"

Am I right? I know I have, and I know how these two little words can change the course of your life. Or, sometimes more importantly, your day.

The last couple of years have been hard. I started dating, went to my kempo class less, ate out more, got engaged, then married, moved, went to Kempo class even less, fought with depression (between birth control and a new neighborhood that wasn't fun), gained more weight than I want to talk about, tried to lose weight, tore up my elbow, tore up one hip joint, gained more weight, failed to meet my writing goals and in general felt quite useless.

I've been trying to pull myself out of this spiral for a while. It's finally working. In an attempt to find the bright side of life, I've fashioned a new outlook on the past two years.

I invited a boy I wanted to get to know to a movie. We started dating a few months later.

I went to Israel with a really good friend just before things got bad over there. Traveling to the Holy Land had been a dream of mine for twenty years.

I rode 45 miles on a bike for MS.

I got engaged.

I lived through said engagement and got married to an adorkable man who treats me like a queen and keeps me on my toes.

I learned a valuable lesson that messing with my own hormones is a really bad idea.

I've met a lot of great people in my new neighborhood that I never would have had the chance to associate with if I hadn't moved here.

I received firsthand experience about how important consistency in exercise is. I 'd always understood it in regards to spiritual things, but now I know a whole lot more. And knowing is half the battle. Or so I learned from afternoon cartoons.

My body isn't getting any younger, but I'm figuring out how to gently guide it back on course.

I start each day thinking about how great it's going to be. Seriously, this is me talking to myself as I'm on the toilet. (Sorry for the image, but it's true.) I go through what I'm going to accomplish and how good it will make me feel (crossing things off my to-do list is like a drug for me). I make a mental note of something nice to do for someone, and I keep my irritable self in the corner of my mind, where she pouts because she's being ignored so much. Which I'm totally fine with. 

It sounds disgustingly ideal, and I sometimes feel like an idiot having self-affirmation talks with myself, but I can tell you, if you stick with it, it can work. It works for me. Not everyday is perfect-I almost walked out of my day job crying last week, but didn't because I'd convinced myself beforehand that everything was going to be fine. No part of my self worth has to be tied with a few issues at work. I'm still an awesome person, even if every product I put into the shop last week blew up in spectacular and expensive ways. Just keep breathing. Stop hating yourself. Take a five minute walk and think about this:

I am grateful.

I am blessed.

I am living today.

I look forward to tomorrow.