It was a Monday morning. I opened my eyes, stretched, did a quick gratitude practice, and set my intention for the day. Then I got up to let my puppy out, as I always do. 

Somewhere between morning gratitude, intention setting, and puppy duty, I noticed I was starting to feel pretty down. What the heck? I did my gratitudes, I set the intentions for my day…what’s going on?? 

I took a breath and tuned in – which is to say I brought conscious awareness to what I was thinking in that moment. Oops. There was the culprit. I had some pesky thoughts running loose and they’d decided to pop in a very worn out tape of old negative beliefs. My thoughts were rocking out to their own little dance party of disempowerment….no wonder I was starting to feel like shit. 

Me: “Ohhhhh no guys, we’re not doing this one anymore, remember? We’ve talked about this. Thank you, but I don’t believe any of that anymore.”

Thoughts, pausing their dance party: “But….are you sure? You used to like to play this particular tape all the time…not even for old times sake?”

Me: “Nope. Never liked that tape, actually. Just didn’t realize I had a choice not to play it anymore. Here, this is the one we play now instead” 

Thoughts: “…heeeeyyyyy….this one is pretty catchy….oh, I like this…you’re right, it feels way better. Say, wanna see me do the Dougie?”

Me: “Not even a little bit.”

So aside from proving I talk to myself on the regular, here’s the takeaway: 

Your morning thoughts set your tone for the day. I guarantee if I’d kept right on unconsciously playing that old 8-track, my day would have felt progressively worse until I was in a full on funk. 

The first step after noticing I was feeling low was to bring awareness to what I was thinking.

The second was to identify what feelings those thoughts were triggering for me (feeling unworthy, feelings of scarcity and lack, etc). 

Then I immediately chose a new thought to replace the old one…a new thought that was in alignment with how I wanted to feel instead (worthy, empowered, joyful, abundant, full of coffee…just kidding. Not really, though, because it was still super early in the morning. I digress).   

How conscious are you of your morning thoughts? Try this exercise for the next three days. Pull up a chair next to your unconscious thoughts and just notice what’s there. If you don’t like the tape that’s playing, try a new one on for size. 

Sparkle on…