They are to focus on loving your mind, body, and soul.

Today, I’m just going to talk about the first one: loving your mind. When we think that something has gone wrong in our lives, it can be so easy to jump to the worst-case scenario. And while that case could happen, most of the time, it doesn’t. But we are still living that worst-case because that’s what we’ve imagined for ourselves in our minds. We are experiencing it internally, even when it hasn’t happened yet. 

Let me give you an example.

In 2011, I was living in Tokyo, Japan, with my husband and 2 small children. In March of that year, there was a massive earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear meltdown 100 miles from our home. My family in the US was terrified for our sakes and desperately wanted us to evacuate and come home to the United States. I felt relatively safe and wanted to stay, but decided I should go home until everything cleared up.

I remember that last time I was in my house before leaving. I was walking up our winding wooden staircase and I stopped to look out the window. I thought about leaving my husband. He wasn’t authorized to leave due to the nature of his work. I thought, the worst-case scenario (in my mind) would be: the kids and I would never return to our house,  my husband would get poisoned from the radioactivity, and I’d never see my things in that beautiful home again. (I told you, my brain can be quite dramatic.)

And even though that did not end up happening, I lived that moment at that time, and then over and over again.

The worst didn’t happen in reality (we went back 2 months later, although my husband did get hit by a car and knocked unconscious with an overnight stay in the hospital while we were gone…) but it happened in my mind.

My mind made it real. And it makes it real again every time I think about what could have happened. 

Now, I recognize that when difficult situations arise, I have a choice of whether I let my brain go to that worst-case scenario or to manage my thoughts instead.

This consists of questioning and answering those unhelpful thoughts.

Is this likely to happen?

Maybe, maybe not.

We just don’t know.

We need more information.

And, if I’m truly managing my brain and my thoughts, I can choose to take charge of envisioning the best case scenario too. If I’m going to let my mind run wild with all the negative, I might as well let it run wild with the best too. (And then reality is usually a mix of the two.)

We had planned a trip to Taiwan during our evacuation, and we were able to keep the trip. This time, it ended up being a trip for 2 instead of 4 because I could leave my kids with my stateside family for the week. It ended up being one of our very favorite vacations ever. (And I couldn’t believe how quickly we got ready when we didn’t have a 4-year-old and 1-year-old in tow.)