by Natasha Bidinoff-Gardiner (Nelson)
As people, we are stronger together than being alone. To have a healthy wellbeing, we need connection.
For me, I’ve always been troubled in the areas of communicating with people, my comprehension, articulating my words and thoughts, blanking out, trying to remember what I want to say before it disappears, not being able to pull files out of my head to express my points of view and not knowing much of the world. This has made it difficult to have real genuine connections. Not having the abilities to connect with others very easily has made me an introvert when really, I believe I am more on the extroverted side.
I keep positive, hoping one day I will fully belong on this little planet of ours. Heck, I just want to enjoy life and be happy, connect with and meet interesting people, and travel the world. We live one life and I want to celebrate along with accomplishing satisfying work. I don’t know how I lucked out, but I found my love partner. I thought I was going to be alone for the rest of my life.
When I do feel negative thoughts and feelings coming on, I try and find ways that will help lessen the harshness of life. I don’t have people in my life to lean on, so I try to keep to a schedule, get the right amount of sleep, eat healthy foods, exercise, sing, get creative artistically and keep upgrading at school to develop myself.
It is important to remind ourselves to send positive messages to ourselves and to focus on the right thoughts that will help our wellbeing. The longer we dwell on things, the longer we are stopping ourselves from becoming the best happy self we can be. We can’t control what other people do but we can control what we can do. What we believe is what we are.
If we choose to fight for the things we want in life, we can achieve so much more than being focused on how life is terrible, and not feeling obligated to change it. It’s better to keep trying than to never try at all.
I stumbled upon a piece of paper one day back in high school. I forgot about it for some time but when I found it again, I loved the message. It read, “An old man told his grandson ‘My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside of us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth.’ The boy thought about it, and asked, ‘Grandfather, which wolf wins?’ The old man quietly replied, ‘The one you feed’.”
I love the idea that what we put our energy into grows. It takes time to grow the parts of our minds to be naturally positive. If you tell a negative message to yourself, well correct yourself and tell yourself the opposite. Most importantly, believe in your positive self. Remember, you are what you believe.