Emotional Stability

Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.  ~Elbert Hubbard



Interesting concept isn't it... but isn't it true that each day is a new day, and with each day we hold the power to decide right from the time we wake up, what type of day it will be?  This morning I watched an amazing Joyce Myers video on Emotional Stability.  Joyce brought up many valid points that in order to be happy and get out of our own ups and downs we have to start making habits of waking up with a good attitude.

In the video Joyce made this following statement:
"Instead of getting up in the morning and meditating about what is wrong with everybody in your house, and everything on your body that aches, how much money you don’t have, what all your friends have but you wish you had, and how everybody mistreats you and takes advantage of you, and how you are sick and tired of this and sick and tired of that…. Come on’ you can talk yourself into a rotten mood before you are even fully awake."

As I listened to her preach, I couldn't help but think "God dammit... that's me right there."  I look back on all the days that I have counted as "bad" and realize that my mood was shitty from the moment my alarm clock went off and I rolled out of bed.  We get the opportunity to set the tone for the day right from the beginning.  It's so easy to sit back and complain without even realizing that we are being negative.  So if we are so use to allowing ourselves to be negative, how do we change?

In order to break the bad habit of negativity we must become completely and utterly alert of every negative thought that we let enter into our minds.  We must stop the negativity at the root of the problem.  This requires a lot of meditation and a lot of self-discipline; however, making new habits is never easy.  Take it one day at a time.  Constantly listen to your thoughts and then slowly comeback with a positive thought for all your negative thoughts, and last but not least, STICK TO IT! You can't form new habit and become a positive person over night.  You have to continually work on yourself and remind yourself that you are human and are bound to make mistakes.  Appreciate who you are, catch yourself when negativity comes, and combat it with a new outlook.

CHALLENGE:  Stay positive until 10am... watch how your morning goes... I promise if you are overly positive until 10am an "ah ha!" moment will occur, and you will realize how much better the day feels just simply because you started it off in a good mood.  Now watch the rest of the day unfold :)

To learn more on Emotional Stability watch the Joyce Myers film at this link:
http://www.joycemeyer.org/ourministries/broadcast/
(If the video does not automatically pop-up, there is a bunch of video thumb nails at the bottom of the web page, choose "Emotional Stability")