Positive self talk: I choose to meet life with good cheer
I recently read that cheerfulness is an extraordinary form of courage. It takes guts to be of good cheer when circumstances in your life seem wobbly. It's brave and trusting that it will all somehow work itself out as you keep walking your right path using your tools and wisdom as guidance.
What’s come as a surprise to me is to learn that cheerfulness doesn’t only make life more pleasant, but it also holds the power to transform. The importance of being of good cheer appears in many sacred texts. It makes you feel better in the moment, and brings about a new future.
It also takes the edge off situations that have entrapped us. Some situations, people or memories have got their hooks deep inside us. We’re triggered by them. Silliness, good cheer and humor prevent the hooks from digging in deeper and may even get them out. They also prevent us from falling for the bait again. As I meet my life with the courage of cheerfulness, you can’t bait me so easily – even if I’ve fallen for it a million times before. I am keeping my big fish mouth away from that worm!
I am freed by my good cheer and choose to head towards a different future. I choose to be cheerful because I can and I know how much I benefit from it, and how much others benefit from it. Now that's love.
I’m not saying that I don’t have big emotions of all sorts. I have been known to lose it. (In fact, I had a very inelegant hissy fit just last weekend.) More and more though, I choose to be cheerful, to laugh with life, to be silly, to look at the bait and say “not this time sucker”, and to transform myself and my circumstances with joviality. No more Pavlov's dog. I am a free being with an amazing will and some pretty nifty tools and wisdom at my disposal. Seems so simple and superficial really – but is it? A key is a simple solution too, but it opens the door. Way easier than to try to bust through it. Who knew cheerfulness could be such a handy tool.
On the note of silly cheerfulness, I had a great time watching Adam Sandler accept his Mark Twain prize for comedy. Now that’s a guy who is at ease, and cheerful. He’s inspiring me to bring out these qualities in myself too. If one human can do something, it means another can do it too. I may not be making Hollywood movies, but I can certainly use it in my own life and have way more fun along the way.
My self talk:
I elevate my life with my cheerfulness
I free myself with lightness, humor and joviality
I am not falling for it and I'm not taking the bait. Nice try sucker!