An Interesting Thought

How often do we hear an apology accompanied by:

“but I was PMSing.”
“but I’d been drinking.”
“but I’ve had a rough day.”
“but I was distracted.”

I was thinking of it because of course, I’m vain enough to do that — to make excuses for myself and why a behavior I didn’t like in myself wasn’t “really so bad”.

What would things look like, I wonder, if we developed the courage to face our choices in behavior to the point where we can say, “Yes, I did X thing. I don’t like it that I did it, and I’m sorry I did it. I’ll try in the future to correct that behavior and not do it again.”? (If we’re really sorry about our behavior, of course!)

In doing that though, I don’t mean saying, “I’m an awful person and I did X”. I mean facing it without self recrimination, but simple acknowledgment, accompanied by any apology you feel necessary and a sincere desire to correct it.

Serenely accepting imperfection and still trying without slacking, I think, can be hard.

Just Because I Impress Myself

I said this in reply to someone on another group talking about working out of a black mood hole:

You are in control of your actions.

You can influence your emotions by your choice of actions.

You can make choices of actions that influence you in itty, bitty positive ways. Consistently choosing small things to influence your mood for good will start to snowball — VERY slowly at first, but it’s like lifting weights. At first you struggle to life ten pounds. By going and trying a little bit consistently, you get stronger and a year later, you’re tossing around 100 lbs like it was nothing. Then people who haven’t tried it get mad at you and say you’re just “naturally strong” and don’t understand what it’s like to find it hard to lift ten pounds.

*wrygrin*