Affirmations & Morning Pages

I have written about the Morning Pages and their importance to me when starting my day several times.  In short, these are 3 hand-written pages of stream of conscious thoughts, ideally written as soon as possible after waking.  There are days where the words won't come.  On days like that, I borrow an idea from my Mom, and write mental affirmations in the space remaining.

Positive affirmations are one of those hippy, feel-good ideas that came about with the onslaught of the self-help and positive thinking industries.  Despite that, I find them incredibly useful in reaffirming to myself what I am, who I want to be, and how I will get there.

Most of my affirmations are based on discipline, self-control and mental toughness.  The focus is here because I believe that if I am willing to do what is hard to do, go without, and sacrifice for the greater good, then any (most) individual situations will work themselves out.  The below are examples of what I repeat to myself mentally or on paper:

• "No matter how bad things go, my mind will carry my body when my limbs are too weak."
• "I do the thing that is hard to do, and the power will come."
• "I have trained my mind, and my body will follow."
• "Need nothing, enjoy everything."
• "Embrace the suck," borrowed from Gaijinass.
• "I will believe when others have doubted."
• "Weakness will not be in my heart."

Several of the above were borrowed from from this speech.

Again, most of these are general, and I feel like they fit like an umbrella over most situations that will come up.  Some cases that I want to focus on will merit their own statements.

For example, in my work, it is easy to receive a request from a customer that is ridiculous.  It may be very difficult to achieve, cause more problems than it will solve, and make my life (and theirs) harder.  The temptation to shoot off a hasty and dismissive response is a strong one.  Instead, I remind myself that maintaining the relationship is more important than the satisfaction that I would get from that type of response.  I do that with the following:

• "I pause between stimulus and reaction to proactively choose a response that is deeply integrated with my recognized principles and values."

Another example would be for boxing.  If I have a fight that I am preparing for, a favorite affirmation would be:

• "I work harder, train longer, and fight smarter than my opponent."

 In any case, I feel that this practice helps me become the type of person that I want to be.  It is far from infallible, otherwise "I [would] have done the thing that is hard to do," and went and talked to that girl at the coffee shop, but steadily, slowly, it molds me into a better, stronger version of me.

Artist's Way Morning Pages

    One of my goal's this year was to take time to think my own thoughts.  This could come in the form of meditation, long solo hikes or stream of conscious writing.  Actually and preferably, it would take the form of all three. 
    Over the last three weeks, I have been consistent about writing in a stream of conscious style every morning.  You can read more about the whats and whys here, but the basics are as follows:

• Write until you have completed 3 pages, long-hand.  Even if you just write "I don't know what to say" over and over again, get all 3 pages.
• Write as soon as possible after waking.  For me, I hit the power button on the coffee maker and start writing immediately.  I want as little outside influence as possible.  Waiting for a few hours allows your brain to get bombarded by commercials, work stress, and whatever the hell else you got going in life.
• Don't feel like the writing has to make sense, or follow any kind of formatting rules, or follow any kind of rules really.  Just write.

    While I usually mock such excercises as being a bit too "hippy-dippy," this has actually helped quite a bit just in the short time that I have been doing it.  Since it allows my mind to wander, I tend to circle back to the things in my life that actually matter and are important to me.  Problems in my life find natural solutions, and I come up with a lot of good ideas during these sessions.  In fact, I have taken to keep my dayplanner close at hand, because I almost always come up with 3-4 things that I want to make sure that I follow-up with.
    More than anything, this practice has given me the mindset that I am "starting the day off right," and everything else is better because of it.