Squish the ANTS! (Automatic Negative Thoughts)


Steps toward forgiveness and emotional recovery:
1. Seek forgiveness from a higher power first. If you lean toward a particular religion, pray for forgiveness from your God. Personally, I’m of Christian faith, so asking for forgiveness from God is most important to me.
2. Forgive the person who has offended you. You might still have strong intense feelings of resentment and anger, but it’s important to purge all of these negative emotions for your own health and well-being.
3. Forgive yourself. The worst thing someone can say or internalize is that they have nothing to be forgiven for. Forgive yourself for anything that "may have” hurt others in the process. You’ll find that you’ll feel lightness in your heart. The heavy weight of being resentful and bitter can emotionally and physically damage you.
Sometimes, you just can’t change things; it’s just out of your control. You can change your attitude about things and live a more fulfilling life by purging all of your negative thoughts, feelings and choices of remaining in that dark place.
Squish the ANTS! ANTS (Automatic Negative Thinking) can truly ruin your life and make those around you uncomfortable. I just recently learned this term and couldn’t help but relate to it all. We all have negative thoughts that fly in and out of our minds. If you give water to a plant, it usually grows. If you give more thoughts toward anger and bitterness, it’ll grow too.
Again, it’s a choice. It’s totally up to you.
By changing out thought processes, we can try to get out of that rubble and climb up to a more comfortable place; a place of forgiveness and love. If we choose to stay under the rubble, we’ll never be saved. We’ll have heavy boulders weighing us down and keeping us down.
Which will you choose?
For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog for some of her famous recipes!