We all have periods in our lives where we feel sorry for ourselves. Things happen in our everyday lives that make us start to think of all that we don’t have, all that we want but can’t have, and how big of a failure we are. As we start thinking more and more about these things we start to slowly slip into self-pity and depression.
This happened to me the other night. We have been going through some frustrating things in our lives and it has been super easy for me to feel sorry for myself. I decided to go on a run (mainly because I’m doing a race soon and I needed to get used to longer distances). My mother-in-law offered to take my girls up to her house so that I could run up to her house. She lives exactly 4 miles away from my house and there are great hills and flats so I usually run up to her house. It usually takes me 35-40 minutes to get there and on this night I forgot my headphones. As I hit about a 1/2 mile away from my house I realized what I had forgotten, but there was no way I was turning back so I had 3.5 miles left of silent running. Pretty soon I started thinking of everything that had been going wrong, everything that I didn’t have, everything that I wanted but there was no way that I could get those things. I started to get super depressed and down and ready to quit on my run. I had already gone 1 mile so I couldn’t stop because I had a long way to go. I decided that I needed to do something to keep my mind off of the negative. I had heard a while ago that if you write down or say everything that you are grateful for you will feel better and quit focusing on the negative. I decided to give it a try so I started. It started out with the basics: my family, my house, my friends… yada yada yada. I was done saying what I was grateful for in 3 minutes. I still had a long time to go before I finished my run so I challenged myself. I decided that I was going to try to say what I was grateful for for 30 minutes and I couldn’t have any repeats. So I started, and you know what!? It was really awesome! I felt so much better by the time I finished my run.
It was one of the hardest things I had done though. I had to think super hard for things that I was grateful for. I couldn’t get away with just my family. I started naming people individually in my family and the things that they did that I was grateful for. Instead of saying that I was grateful for nature I turned it into, “I’m grateful for the beautiful lilac trees and the wonderful smell that they give.” “I’m grateful for the mountains and that I am able to go and camp in them and make memories with my family there.” As I started breaking things down, I realized how much I did have. I realized how silly I was for looking at what I wanted and what I needed. I even started to name people who had wronged me or made me mad. I said, “I am grateful for X because they taught me the importance of standing up for myself and giving me the courage to say what I really thought.” That was super hard for me to say, but once I got it off my chest I realized that even through the hard and frustrating times, I had learned a lot, and grown to become the person that I am today.
I’m not just saying that this was awesome to be Miss Peppy. It truly was a great exercise and helped me to forget about all of the stupid, minuscule things. I highly suggest trying this if you feel down or frustrated.