As I enjoyed watching the squirrels frolicking together in the park I thought that could be one of my gifts for tonight. What will yours be?
I am not talking about The Fertile mind hypnosis fertility ebook and relaxation mp3 that I hope you have downloaded and are enjoying, I want to share something with more powerful than that – something that can lift you at those times when life just appears to be rubbish and everyone around you is getting on with their happy lives, or all you can see is pregnant women.
In stressful times (and it’s hard to beat infertility for a source of stress) your mind can spend so much time on the negatives of life, not having children, that it can fail to see anything else positive in your life. Our minds filter what we are consciously aware of.
Our subconscious mind is aware of about 2 billion bits of information a second, however to protect us from overload our conscious mind is only aware of 5-9 things at any one time (women probably more than men!). So, your mind filters out what it thinks is not important.
These filters are influences by your beliefs, values and thoughts. So if you believe there is nothing good in your life, guess what, you’re not going to see anything good.
The following exercixe can open your mind to seeing positive things in your day even in the depths of infertility, lifting your mood, letting you feel more positive and hopeful about things. An study in the US showed that this exercise was more effective than prozac, so why not give it a go!
The Three Gifts:
Just before you go to sleep, write down three ‘gifts’ or things that happened in your day you are grateful for. These could be little things like seeing something in nature, a child’s smile, or something bigger. Even the worst day has some gifts if you look for them. Do this every night for three weeks. And that’s it. That is all you have to do.
It can be helpful to write them down. If you think of more than three then choose your top three. If you are struggling to think of three, keep thinking about the day, you may be surprised what comes to mind you had forgotten or hadn’t really taken notice of at the time. I have used this exercise myself from time to time when I become aware my thinking is not serving me or I am worried about a something particular. It helps me keep a positive frame of mind.
After a short time you start to see things in your day that could be one of your gifts for that night. Gradually your brain starts going to look for them as you go about your day meaning you become far more aware of things in your life you can be grateful for.
What would your Three Gifts for today be?