Mental Shower

I headed out for coffee and my morning walk and the second I took my first breath it hit me… The smoke was everywhere again and thicker than before, filling my lungs. It felt suffocating. I could barely breathe. It was almost as if the world had caught fire and I was somehow trapped inside, but I was really outside and only a few doors away from my home. I turned around thinking a shower could somehow wash away all the smoke and the fires and the pandemic and politics and everything else dancing around in my head.

Yeah, I needed a shower. A “Mental Shower”, a life tool I teach to many of my clients.

It’s like this… Whenever you have a negative thought, wash it out of your mind. Fast. Imagine yourself under a waterfall, washing all those negative thoughts fluttering around between your ears. Wash it away. The longer you keep a negative thought in your mind the more long term damage is done to your mind, body and soul.

In my deep appreciation for the downpour of the cleansing cool water, in my mental shower, I thought....

Who am I to complain? I’m not evacuating. My home still stands. There’s no fire truck outside my door. I have food in the fridge, a job I love, my family is healthy and the world is still turning, however wobbly we think it seems sometimes.

Simply change your mindset and focus on things that are going well, rather than the things that feel wrong. What we focus on grows stronger.

So, I’m sending good thoughts to those truly suffering during these fires. I’m sending prayers to those harmed by the pandemic. I’m hopeful for those struggling to find new work. 

And I am so very grateful for all the simple things in life we can choose to harness, such as love, wonder, joy, faith and all the other amazing emotions we can shower in.

No matter what, stay healthy, happy and whole. The only world that can bring you down is the one you create in your head. So I’m taking my mental shower and putting myself back on my mental diet every time I forget to be grateful. Sure it may be smoky at times because life is full of wildfires. There will always be days we get burned. But most days and the best days the sun shines and skies are blue. And the bad days only exist so we can appreciate the good ones even more.

To discover more about the "mental diet" written about in this blog, sign up for Foxley's once a month virtual life coaching workshop titled, "Mixed Up to Fixed Up in Four Weeks". Or discover her books on Amazon and her daily hybrid yoga/life coaching television shows on channel 16 every morning. Visit SusanFoxley.com to find out more.