047 – Stop Touching It!

My 7 year-old got a bug bite and she wouldn’t leave it alone.  She kept touching and touching it.  I told her to leave it alone.  The bug bite kept bothering her, so she kept itching it.  Guess what happened.  It only got worse!

Interrupt the pattern of negative thinking to break free!

In our lives, there are plenty of things that, if we just left it alone, it will go away.  The stories that we tell ourselves at night, painful memories, or thinking about what we should have done better are painful points in our lives that we “keep touching” because it keeps bothering us.  If we beat ourselves up or tell ourselves the same story over and over again, we don’t allow ourselves to move on and grow.  The only way for those “owies” to heal is to stop messing with them and do the work to improve.  Guilt and shame are the ball and chain.  Forgiveness and expansion are the bolt cutters.

How can we break free from emotional “owies”?

1. Identify the old stories that happened in our lives or scenarios of what might happen that we continually think about.
2. Identify common themes or phrases that we are telling ourselves.  Self talk is an internal dialogue that affects our confidence and self-esteem.  Whether we think we can, or think we can’t, we’re right.
3. Fuck that story.  Interrupt the pattern of negative thinking to break free so we can move on.

What old stories do you keep rehashing?  It’s time to let them go.  Stop touching it!