Thursday, July 17, 2014

Something to do for Low Self Esteem

Today is my first "Thankful Thursday" post.  I'm not certain about the name yet, so I'll give it a go as long as it works. Today we are going to talk about a Thankful Journal.  Maybe you have heard of this before and maybe you haven't.  I first heard of the idea when I was in Junior High.  Teenagers are mean, and when you have a funny looking face (like I did, because of the tumor I was born with) but seem pretty normal, they can be downright ruthless.  I was having a particularly hard time with self esteem because of the teasing and a friend told me about a project he had started in Africa called a "Thankful Circle."  As a community they were suffering great depression and sadness, my friend suggested that they meet once a day and each say 3 things they were thankful for.  It was extremely effective, changing the attitude and productivity of the entire area.

I wouldn't say I was suffering from depression, but I did have low self esteem, so I decided to start my own circle with me, myself and I...and I wanted to remember the things I was thankful for, so I started writing them down.  Every night before I went to bed I would make myself write 3 things that I was thankful for (even if I didn't feel thankful for a single cotton-pickin' thing), and  I soon found that it was so effective in making life seem better that I started writing 3 things I was thankful for every morning too.  Sometimes it was silly like "I'm thankful that I have ink in my pen so I don't have to get out of bed and look for another pen."  Sometimes it was really deep, "I'm thankful for the person who made the nails that hold my bed together.  Other times it was fitting to my situation, "I'm thankful that no one made fun of me today," or "I'm thankful that ______ spoke to me, it made me feel like someone besides my family actually cared about me."

Such a simple thing.  A thankful journal, merely recognizing the blessings around me, was the first important step I took to finding happiness in the midst of those tough teenage years.  It's never too late to look around and be thankful for the things that are around you.

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