New season, new thoughts....

Have you ever heard, change your thoughts, change your feelings? Well, this is so true. It is unbelievable how we let our thoughts dictate our feelings and our attitudes. Thoughts are just little sentences running through our minds. I had mentioned on a previous post about a book I had read Loving What Is by Bryon Katie. She shares an incredible story of her bringing herself out of a deep depression simply by understanding that our thoughts are only thoughts. Bryon calls it doing the work. When you have thoughts that are not serving you well, you should stop and ask yourself; Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? Where would you be without this thought? And finally, turn it around. Most of us will find that questions one and two are most often a big no! We are just creating a bunch of stories in our heads that most often give us a negative feeling (which a feeling is an emotion) and we all plenty of emotions😜. I cannot tell you how many times a day I will catch a thought and say, no we are not going there. I simply argue with my own mind that I am not going to waste my time on something that will give me bad feelings. Our thoughts, create our feelings, our feelings create our actions. Our actions give us results. Yes, listening to one of my favorite podcast, and she described how she would have this vicious cycle of dieting. Start the diet. Goes well for a couple days and then she would cheat and fall off the wagon. Here comes the flow of negative thoughts of “I am never going to be thinner”, “I am a terrible person for not sticking with my program”, and on and on. These thoughts made her depressed which made her eat. So, the thoughts of failure created her bad feelings about herself, and she would eat. Then, her results were her weight gain. Our actions are our behaviors that are directly related to these feelings. Our actions might be a reaction on even and inaction. Can you see how stupid negative thoughts are? It does not serve us in any form. We would never tell a friend, daughter, or sister that they are a loser when they explain that they were unable to stick with their diet program? No, we would not. We tend to treat others much better than ourselves. Instead, we would most likely encourage them and give them positive feedback on how they can achieve their goals. Why do we not talk to ourselves this way? Why are we most often hardest on ourselves? I really don’t have the answers, but I do want us to improve. Let’s be kinder and gentler with our thoughts about ourselves. There is nothing selfish about learning or practicing self-love. The more we love ourselves, the more we can love others. We can be so self judging on ourselves. Why am at not smarter, why do I have short legs, why did I say that, why did I not follow through on that project, etc. Learning to love yourself, your body, and your mind can be a beautiful thing. Let's practice being a kinder person not only to society, but to ourselves. This does not mean that we do want to improve, but just practice being nicer overall to ourselves and less judging💕.

On a lighter note, fall is in the air! I love it. Cooler mornings and am wanting to change up my garden. Not quite sure what I am going to plant. However, here a favorite couple of recipes that I enjoy making at this time of year.

Pumpkin Dip

2 packages of cream cheese

1 can of pumpkin

2 cups of sifted powder sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Blend with mixer cream cheese and pumpkin. Add sugar, cinnamon, and ginger and mix. Refrigerate. Serve cold with ginger snaps, green apples, or graham crackers. It is delicious. I usually serving only half and using the other for the next day. I love buying my ginger snaps at world market in the tin cans. They arrive there about this time!

Payday candy mix

Combine candy corn package with Virginia peanuts. Serve with spoon. It looks so fall and taste like my favorite candy bar PAYDAY! Easy but delicious. This is fun to put out in a bowl with a scoop and dixie cups for a fun fall outdoor gathering.