"Sticks & Stones.....

may break my bones but names will never hurt me." Things only hurt your feelings if you let them, right? It's hard in some situations not to feel hurt, but in reality you've given your consent. Easy to say, hard to live.

Affirmations are thoughts we tell ourselves that are positive. Even if we don't believe them initially, we hope that we'll tell ourselves enough times that we'll eventually prove the statements true. Like: "I am successful." "People like me." "I love food that tastes like cardboard. Cardboard is yummy." "I am soooo good-lookin'." My recent one: "Who needs intestines anyway?"

So what do you do with the junk that creeps into your head? Last week I had a lot of "stinkin' thinkin'" which is what I call thoughts that bring you down. My husband asked me what was wrong one day and I answered that I have a lot of stinkin' thinkin'. He then begged me to share my thoughts. You know that didn't happen. So I forced my thoughts upon him and he reminded me that I was a princess and didn't need to worry about such things. He was my prince and was going to make things all better. That didn't happen either. Those affirmations keep creeping into my thoughts.

Back to stinkin' thinkin' and reality. And chocolate. And anti-depressants. And thumbs while you're in fetal position on the closet floor. Just kidding. I only do one of those mentioned (maybe two). So here's what I think about stinkin' thinkin': Do what you gotta do to get through it because time definitely brings things into perspective. Then you feel really bad because you now have the thought, "I'm a stupid, brainless idiot for thinking that way." My advice (because I have so much insight ;-) is: Surround yourself with positive things. Wear colors you love, listen to music that lifts you up, talk to people who love you and read blogs that make you laugh.