Thoughts that are Saving My Life Right Now

Emily P. Freeman likes to share the “things that are saving her life right now” every season on her podcast, The Next Right Thing. She got this idea from Barbara Brown Taylor, and while the name of the list sounds a bit dramatic, it includes all kinds of things (both big and small).

I thought it would be fun to put my own spin on this by sharing the thoughts that are saving my life right now. I love thought work (which is just a fancy way of saying paying attention to your thoughts and learning how to change the thoughts that aren’t serving you).

I can’t remember who said this, but I love this quote: “We build our own reality and then we live in it as if it were real.”

We act like our thoughts are objective observations of reality, but that isn’t true at all.

Our thoughts are just stories we’ve made up… which means we can change them.

I love what Brooke Castillo says about how trying on thoughts is like trying on clothes. Some thoughts might work well for one person but not another.

Feel free to borrow any of these thoughts that work for you, and leave the rest.

Here are 50 of my favorite thoughts!

1. Everyone is doing the best they can.
2. Sometimes their best is pretty terrible, and that’s okay.
3. Like all humans, I am half amazing and half mess (and that’s okay).
4. This is really hard, and that’s okay.
5. I’m doing a good job.
6. I appreciate myself.
7. They don’t have to understand.
8. No matter how this goes, I am not going to be mad at myself.
9. I’m so proud of myself for trying.
10. I love me anyway.
11. They can be anxious, and I don’t need to be.
12. They can be grumpy, and I don’t need to be.
13. Their mood isn’t about me.
14. What they just said isn’t about me.
15. It’s okay for people to have negative emotions.
16. I want everyone to have the experience they want to have (instead of “I just want everyone to be happy”…which is not something I have any control over).
17. Everyone is supposed to struggle in some way.
18. It’s okay to be anxious.
19. It’s okay to be sad.
20. Of course I’m feeling this way. It makes sense.
21. I can do tired.
22. I can do pain.
23. This is the part where my neck hurts like hell and I have a headache. I have plenty of experience with this and I’m good at doing it. (This feels much better than resisting reality and being pissed off about the pain, which is what I used to do….and still do sometimes. It’s a work in progress).
24. Everyone is just making it up as they go.
25. No one knows how to handle this.
26. This is hard because it’s hard, not because I’m doing something wrong.
27. I can figure this out.
28. I was made for this.
29. I can do hard things.
30. This is harder than I thought it would be, and that’s okay.
31. Bodies are kind of funny looking (instead of “I’m so fat” or something similar).
32. I love you. I love me. I love us.
33. To act out in that way, they must be really struggling.
34. Being a human is hard sometimes.
35. We’re just a couple of humans (who are half amazing, half mess) doing the best we can.
36. Everyone has a good reason for doing the things they do.
37. If I knew every single experience this person has ever had in their entire life and exactly how their DNA is impacting the way they think, the way they behave (which is being created by their emotions and their thought patterns) would make complete sense.
38. There is nothing wrong with me. Like all humans, I have some unhelpful thought patterns and I can learn to change them.
39. The worst thing that can happen is a negative emotion.
40. I can handle any emotion.
41. There is no such thing as a “wrong” decision. I can be happy (which comes from my thoughts, not my circumstances) either way.
42. Life is 50/50… half amazing and half awful. This will not change no matter what my circumstances look like.
43. This is part of the 50% that sucks, and that’s okay.
44. The world is always getting better AND it’s always getting worse.
45. This too shall pass.
46. This won’t last forever.
47. This doesn’t really matter.
48. This matters AND it doesn’t matter at all.
49. I always figure things out.
50. I always have more than enough.

What are some of your favorite thoughts?