From Narrow to Expansive: Cultivating a Positive Mindset

I've shared this before in a YouTube video and I will have it linked, but there are two general categories of attitude, negative and narrow, positive and expansive. Just like in that video, I asked the question, which category do you fall into, negative and narrow or positive and expansive? We all know those people that they're just negative. That's how you would explain that person. Maybe you go to a family get together and on the way home, you say, oh, he's so negative or he is just so negative. It's pretty draining, isn't it? It's pretty draining and it's sad because I don't believe anyone would want to be described that way, but we know it exists. We know that there are people that just have negative and narrow thinking, and by narrow thinking, they kind of have a scarcity mindset or very fearful, just very fearful, and fear brings on a lot of negativity. If you wear it on your sleeve, you're typically going to show up in a negative way. Then it's interesting because to the contrast of that, there's positive people that talk in a very expansive way. Be a person of increase. They're very expansive. I always say what you focus on expands just everything. They light up a room and you feel so good when you're around them. It's just a wonderful feeling. If you're that negative and narrow, sometimes what I often hear, maybe if a client shares with me that they're negative and narrow, they've got all their reasons why. They've got all their reasons why, but we could all find reasons. I'm not saying that we don't all struggle with negativity at times. The inner chatter is really prominent, and often the negative and narrow, that's exactly it. They have a lot of that inner voice that is just negative, negative chatter, but instead of recognizing it as the banter going on in their head, in their thoughts, careful what you think about. Are you stewarding your words is often what I will say to my clients if they just are nonstop negative. How are you speaking over yourself? Of course you're going to be negative if that is the way you're going to speak over yourself, but you don't know what I've gone through, Tracy. You don't know. If you went through what I did, you would get this. Well, yeah, I hear you. I hear you, but I'm a pretty positive person and I've been through some pretty hard times in my life. Some of those hard times I suppressed. My therapists use dissociate. It's a very common word for trauma survivors, not victims, but trauma survivors. I'm here, right? Clearly, if I'm a trauma survivor and I'm here, I survived, right? But that doesn't always mean that I thrive and that's where good healing comes in. But I'm choosing to steward my words and speak truth over myself, but that's not what I'm here to talk about is me. I'm here to talk about you and how are you showing up? How do you want to be remembered, right? How do you want people to speak about you? How do you want to be? How do you want to show up? How do you want to be remembered? Maybe you could be a better master of yourself, right? Maybe. We all can find reason to be negative. We all can find reason to think in a narrow way and if you came from an environment, an upbringing where everyone was negative and narrow, it's going to be really hard for you to break that cycle. But it can be done. It can be done. You can be the one to change that, right? You don't have to conform, right? Be that voice of change, right? Speak kindness over others. I think it's important for all of us to check ourselves and not only to take stock, take inventory of whether we're being negative and narrow or positive and expansive inside with ourselves because that's really where it all starts. It is an inside job, you know? You really have to start there because as you do the work there, how you show up in this world, how you show up with others, it will show. When people really do the work, it does start to show and you will be rewarded for that work. Trust me. Every one of us has a reason to be negative. I know I do and I've recently been made aware of many, many reasons that I was the victim. Injuries were put on me. I do have wounds. But I am not about to let that information in the past that I can hold myself hostage to or not affect how I show up not only with others but myself. I will speak truth over myself and I will steward my words. I encourage you to take that inventory today, to take stock today. How are you showing up? How are you showing up? What are your thoughts? Are you being a person of increase? Because you can be despite what's happened, despite what you're going through, you're hurt, you're lost, you're grief. I always say in diet and exercise when I work with my clients, don't attach anything going on in your life to food. They're completely two different things. If you turn to the food that doesn't serve you because you're stressed or you're going through something, you're just going to magnify how you feel, what you focus on expands. If you eat that food, you're just going to feel guilt and shame about it afterwards and feel like a failure again and that's just going to expand and it's going to keep you in that negative and narrow space. It's the same with whatever it is. We can take the hardships, the adversities, the difficulties that we go through on a daily basis or something that's really, really intense and weighing on you, a really difficult season, and you can't allow that to expand and affect how you show up with yourself and others. But you have a choice in this. You have a choice and that's a beautiful place to be is knowing that we have choices. I encourage you today to think about this and reflect on what I'm sharing. Create some white space in your day today, tomorrow, as soon as you can, unplugged, not reading anything, just in your thoughts and say, what am I really feeling and what is really going on in my mind and what am I speaking over myself? And it's showing up with how I speak over others and then make a decision. I can choose different. I want to share. I have a little workshop for you. You know that I use a habit tracker not only to track habits but to check off my daily to-do list if it's a daily. I use this for personal and for professional, for my business. I shared a video about a month or two ago walking you through my habit tracker and I just picked up a new one because the first one I bought, I used up the whole thing. So I have a year under my belt or close to it because I use the front and back. So I bought a new one and I think I shared that in my most recent purchases video. I'll have that video linked and then actually I will be talking about it here in a few days. Again, when I share my empties with you, that's coming up on Friday. My April empties because I'll share the habit tracker that I emptied. I've had a couple people, well clients actually, I've worked with a couple clients helping them set up their habit tracker and it prompted me that it'd be nice for me just to do a workshop where I help you decide if a habit tracker would be a good tool for you, not just for your habits but anything that you do on a daily that you kind of need to check off that you achieved that because it may not get done. I shared in my recent Bible memorization video how I, yes, I use my note cards but I also use my habit tracker and I show you in that how I do that. So I have a workshop that you can take advantage of. It's yours today. There will be a link in the description box below to get to that workshop and a link to get to the habit tracker so you can get that on order unless you want to take the workshop first and see if you even need to use this or you want to. You don't need to do anything but if you want to. But I basically give options of how you can use the habit tracker as a tool for different things like checking yourself. One of the areas that you could put in there is, you know, positive and expansive. And if that is a line item on your habit tracker every day, you know, you're checking off, did I accomplish that? Now that we know things will come your way to entice you, the enemy is very tricky and very much at work, you will have temptations to go into that negative space, believe me. But if you're checking in daily and you're seeing it there and you know you're going to give a check mark, that may get the job done. Maybe you have a real weakness for ice cream and avoid ice cream and you can check off the days that you're avoiding it. And as you see those X's or checks, you are more and more empowered and likely to stick with that because it really does feel great. It's a great feeling. So positive and expansive, right? Maybe that's exactly what you need as a tool in your arsenal, in your life toolkit to become a more positive and expansive person. And I'm always here to help you with that, okay? So yeah, take advantage of it. May 1st is right...the month of May is right around the corner. So if you get your habit tracker on order today and you get the workshop today, you can start watching it and then the habit tracker will arrive. If you're prime, you'll have it by tomorrow and you can start filling in. Maybe today as you're watching the workshop, you can start writing down what you think you'll put on your habit tracker. Maybe get it written out first before actually putting it on the hard copy. But I think this could really be a great tool. I know I'm a get-the-job-done type of girl and I would say I'm positive and expansive, but you know, it just...it keeps me in better spirits to have some of these systems. I like how they make me feel, so I just continue with it. So I encourage you to take advantage of it. And just...and again, we need to create that white space, time for introspection so that we can take stock, take inventory of how we're showing up in what we're stewarding in our life or what needs a little assistance. And if you really want the big assistance, I'm here to help. But the big Lord, Father, Abba, whatever, our Daddy, whoever, our Holy Spirit, Lord and Savior, he is always there to help you in any way. You're his child and he wants what's best for you. And you better believe he's always with you. Do your trials, your tribulations, your hardships, your loss, your grieving, your overcoming some trauma in your life like I am, he's right there with you. So, yeah. All right.