Life since 2019 has been challenging for me. I guess loss, fear, frustration, and the unknown are everyday happenings as we age—at least in my experience. With what is happening in our country and worldwide, we all could benefit from daily habits or routines that keep us centered, balanced, and authentic. As I try to “Live while I live,” I find a morning affirmation helpful, and I’m sharing mine as an example. Use what I do or create your own—it helps me and is a good way to start the day with a positive outlook. I say this aloud as I look in the mirror.

AFFIRMATIONS

• Today, I woke up, opened my eyes, and put my feet on the floor. As I look in the mirror, I promise myself that today will be a GREAT day because I SAID it would.

• I’m going to smile in a situation where I usually allow myself to feel frustrated or angry because it feels better, and I deserve to feel great.

• My Mind is my power, I DECIDE MY DAILY FATE.

• I promise to try something different today, just because.

• I will remind myself there are so many wonderful things I still want to do and accomplish.

• I need to continue to make new memories.

• Everything I feel starts and ends with me, so I choose happy.

Maybe it’s a little quirky, but it helps to say it out loud. It diminishes whatever I’m worrying about, and it cleans up my brain as if attacking it with a scrub brush and soap.

Morning meditation, yoga, prayer, a cup of something hot combined with silence, a long walk, or whatever helps erase the gunk and noise, quiets our soul and provides a firmer foundation for making a worthy day.

We may have little control over the chaos, but we have total control of our thoughts. Observing our breath and heartbeat also helps us focus on gratitude and possibilities instead of fear and frustration. Even if the peacefulness only lasts a few minutes, it is valuable.

Lastly, we can put our phones down. They can eat us alive or swallow us whole—if we let them. Social media might keep us connected to friends and foes or entertain us with how to prepare food or fix our hair, but it also provides needless, harmful, and often false information that does us little good.

Experiment with what helps you maintain mental wellness, and then do it daily.

There’s power in purposeful repetition.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

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