Staying Positive

During quarantine, your mind can wander to dark places. I know because I have found myself there countless times. The feeling of not caring about anything. The feeling of insecurity. The feeling of sadness and feeling like you are losing your mind. It is easy to fall into these despondent phases, but I just want you all to stay strong and positive.

People often say, “It’s better said than done,” but with staying on a positive mindset it takes speaking it into existence and action. Set goals for yourself whether they be long term or short. It could literally be going on a walk every day. Repeat to yourself in the mirror if you have to, “I will take a walk every day.” Once you say it out loud it’s spoken in the universe. Then put it into action. Hype yourself up to go on that walk. I know how easy it is to be lazy. But why would you spend your days doing nothing productive? It is a blessing to wake up every day and you should take it for granted. If it’s one thing I learned from living is that to never take anything for granted because it can be taken away from at any moment. So, live every day doing something you love.

Recently, I have been taking this time to do things that I enjoy. Instead of focusing all my energy into my school work as I did before this pandemic. I have been writing, researching, photographing, and even drawing. I have just been trying to find myself and who I am as a creative. Ironically, I feel like a lost that side of me this school year. I was focused on getting straight A’s and comparing myself to others that I completely forgot to take care of myself and, as a consequence, I spiraled emotionally. I let what others had to say about me affect me and became anxious about the smallest things.

Allowing other people’s opinions to affect me was my biggest mistake. Growing up, I have always been picked on. If it wasn’t because of my skin color, it was because I was tall. If it wasn’t because I was tall, it was because of my big eyes. If it wasn’t because of my big eyes, it was because of acne.

The moral of the story is it was always something, and I learned to become immune to what others had to say. However, when I made a change in my life and encountered different people, they would aim at a different flaw.

My speech impediment. When people started to pick on me because of the way I spoke, I started to look down on myself. I never wanted to speak in public. I even became self- conscious when I spoke among people. It got to a point where I hated myself because it was something I couldn’t control. I also developed a fear of speaking. Then my grandmother reminded me that I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.

So, I forced myself to get outside my comfort zone. To speak in front of crowds of people. I was only holding myself back  by keeping my mouth shut. Never let someone take your voice away. So I accepted my speech impediment and started to work on myself because that is the only person who was going to help me. When I did that, I started to become more comfortable with speaking out loud and I regained the confidence I had once again. Thankfully, I realize that I was allowing those people to win if I thought negative things about the way I talked. Those people who said negative things have insecurities within themselves that they have to heal. They feed off of hurting others. So, I no longer allow them or anyone else makes me feel bad about myself because I know who I am and my flaws.

It is important to accept all parts of you and work on the parts they need healing. I am not perfect and I still have parts of myself that I need to heal. But I choose to accept that and remain positive about it. Because with a positive mindset you can achieve anything.

Here are a couple of  Ted Talks that I’ve watched recently. Maybe they can help you the way they helped me!

 

Author: Stephyne Weathersby

Lowkey trying my best.