thoughts, feelings and behavior
Someone really awesome introduced me to the thoughts, feelings and behavior theory. Have you heard of that? It’s the theory that our thoughts create our feelings which in turn influence our behaviors therefore reinforcing our thoughts. It is a cycle that we can (and have) all been caught in.
This can work for or against you. Let’s start with the positive example: You look the mirror and your thought is I look really pretty today. This makes you feel good about yourself and the behavior is you put a little extra effort into your appearance that day. That reinforces the thought that you look pretty. See?
But it can also work against you. Let’s use the same example but change the thought. You look in the mirror and your thought is I am so ugly. This makes you feel bad about yourself and the behavior is to put no effort into your appearance that day. That reinforces the thought that you think you look ugly. Make sense?
It is such a simple concept but one in which I had never heard before a few weeks ago. But it makes TOTAL sense. I like logical diagrams like that. They work for me. When I have a negative thought or am acting in a negative way I like being about to figure out where it came from and change my thought process. This is a new concept for me. Instead of just accepting that it is going to be a bad day I now have tools to figure out where the feeling came from and what my thoughts were. It helps. It helps me to get out of funks when I find myself in one. I am not by nature a positive, glass half full kind of girl. But I feel like with this tool I can change my mindset instead of just accepting it. And that, for me, is huge.
I am not perfect at it by any means. And sometimes even when I can trace the thought and know I am being illogical it still won’t change anything. But sometimes it does. Sometimes I can break the cycle and right now sometimes is good enough. Sometimes is a building block and eventually sometimes will turn into most of the time.
peanut butter bread
Happy Saturday!! I have such a good recipe for you!! Oh my gosh…this was delicious! Peanut Butter Bread…really need I say more? Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk (I use unsweetened almond milk)
3/4 cup peanut butter
banana slices for garnish, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in peanut butter with a fork. Add egg and milk. Stir just until moistened.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn loaf out onto rack and cool completely.
Serves 10
i did it: 30 days in review
Well I did it. I successfully completed the 30 day challenge. If you missed any of them I added a tab above that will take you to that page and you can see all the posts there.
I am really proud of myself for doing it! I have run across several blogs who have started it but not finished it so I was really determined to see this challenge all the way to completion. And I am really glad I did.
LIKES
- It was super easy not to have to think of a blog topic every day. I just looked at the list and that was it. It made coming up with something to say a lot easier!
- I shared some really personal things about myself that I may not have had the courage to just open up and share had I not been prompted.
- I learned a lot of myself. Actually writing out those personal posts made me learn even more about my self, my thoughts and my feelings.
- I learned that a lot of the things I struggle with some of you either struggle with it as well or had some really sweet things to tell me. Reading your comments everyday especially on the posts that meant a lot me was really very comforting.
- I like to think it allowed you to learn a lot more about me!
DISLIKES
- It was a like to not have to think of a blog topic but some days I didn’t want to blog about what the list said!
- I thought some of the topics were repetitive and I had to find creative ways to say the same thing I had already said.
- Some of the topics were boring and it was a challenge to make them enjoyable for you to read and for me to write
OVERALL
- Overall I really liked this challenge and would love to do another one some day. I learned a lot about myself and it was fun to share with you guys. I also liked how you basically knew in advance what the topic was going to be and then could come tune it depending on what day interested you. I guess now you are stuck with just whatever pops into my head. Oh lucky you. 😉
What did you think of the 30 day challenge? Did you like it?
ups & downs
Day 30 of the 30 day challenge is to talk about my highs and lows of these past 30 days. I feel like I already did this one. Oh wait…I did. Day 17 was my highs and lows of the past year. Do I really have to do this again…she wines…and no I don’t. This month was fine. Just a month. Not terrible not fantastic. It just was. Meh. Sorry…not exactly the answer you were looking for. But sometimes I like just ordinary months. It doesn’t always have to be great or always have to be bad. It can just be. And to be 100% honest it has taken me a long time to be okay with just ordinary. Not every day or month has to fall perfectly into a certain category. Keith says I live a lot of my life in the far corners of extremes and I miss out on a lot of the middle. So these past 30 day were right smack in the middle and you know what? That’s okay with me.
But one thing that has taken control of my life this month is a man named Jack Reacher. I have become obsessed (quite literally obsessed) with the Jack Reacher novels written by Lee Child. For reals, guys these books are amazing!! There are 15 books in the series with number 16 coming out this fall. I have read 7 of them in literally the last 30 days. I can NOT put them down. They are all between 400-500 pages and they read fast. The stories follow a man named Jack Reacher. He is an ex-military cop who lives the life of an invisible civilian and gets himself into interesting suspenseful situations. These books are action packed, always with a fun love interest, and leave you on the edge of your seat! Rumor has it that the book One Shot has been sold to Hollywood for movie rights!
Jack Reacher Novels
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Killing Floor
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Die Trying
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Tripwire
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Running Blind
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Echo Burning
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Without Fail
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Persuader
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The Enemy
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One Shot
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The Hard Way
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Bad Luck and Trouble
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Nothing To Lose
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Gone Tomorrow
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61 Hours
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Worth Dying For
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The Affair <—coming in September 2011
Do you like book series? I do! I hate it when a good book ends because I always want to know what keeps happening in the character’s lives (and yes Keith I know they are NOT real people) 🙂
What Kelly Said 