I am practicing gratitude.

Every morning when I brush my teeth I speak three things I am grateful for and why I am grateful for them.  In addition I am sending one message a day to a different person to tell them why I am grateful to have them in my life.

Our brains are trained to constantly scan for the negative.  It takes work to be positive.  I have had way too much negative in my life for too long.  I want to change that.   I will be reporting back here on how it is going.

Things are going good for me right now.  I have made the choice to live my life doing what makes me happy.  If you are going to judge me for my life choices I don’t want to hear it. It’s my life and I have lived too much of it pleasing others and being drained and abandoned.   I can’t live that way anymore.

As the leaves turn colors and start to fall from the trees I feel the urge to make some changes.

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day and she said something to me that really stuck with me.  She said that her therapist told her that most people spend 80% of their time thinking about themselves and 20% thinking about others but she was the opposite.  I know that for almost all my life I have spent 80% or more of my time focused on other people.  I constantly would be thinking about what someone else would think about me, how I look, what I said, do they care about me? what can I do to make them happy?  etc etc..  I did that so much that I lost myself in the process.  I have been in more than one relationship where I gave all I had out of love to be left standing completely drained as they walked away without looking back.  All that time, energy, love and money wasted on someone who used me until they had used me up.  I gave up doing things I loved because I was criticized by lovers and friends for being “too busy”.  I did not do things for myself because I was too busy doing for others.  I bought for those I loved and went without myself.  I want to be clear.  It was not always asked for.  It was just what I did.  It was my identity.  I was not happy unless I was doing for someone else.  I have had no balance in that area.  The last two relationships I have had almost did me in.  I did everything to please and ended up hollow.

But it is time for change.  I know it will not be easy.  When people love me I am suspicious of them.  I struggle with feelings of not being good enough.  When I do things for myself I feel guilty.  When I allow myself to feel rage because someone has harmed me I feel like a bad person.  When I take up for myself I feel I am doing something wrong.  This is going to take some work.  I was thinking this morning about how it is important for my own mental health to forgive and I have forgiven some people who hurt me deeply.  But here is the important thing I was missing.  I can forgive but that does not mean I have to open my life in anyway to someone who will only damage me if I am around them.  There is one person in particular that has shown me zero respect or compassion that I have chosen to forgive even though they have not once apologized for their part in what happened.   I do not have to allow that person to have any part in my life.

Its time to turn the page and move on.

The box of darkness I was handed last year is on the floor empty.  The contents are no longer scary.  I can look at them one by one and be reminded of the lessons I have learned over the past year and a half.  When I first opened that box I was overcome with darkness and sadness and I let it overtake my heart.  I was in a dark place for many months.  Today it is hard to believe how far I have come.  I have grown in so many positive ways.  I have wonderful people in my life.  Some of these friends I gained throughout this process.  I never dreamed I would have friends who would just come and sit with me on the couch or sleep next to me just so I could rest.  One in particular has become a sister of my heart.  I am so incredibly blessed.  So universe thank you for this box of darkness.

In my case, everything.

I do not understand why people are so afraid to use the word love.  I can love in so many different ways.  It is a good thing to open your heart to allow love in and to give it in return.  It seems that people are afraid that by saying the word love they are locking themselves in.  Actually it may be that those who are afraid of using the word love aren’t really afraid at all.  They just know you are only for the moment and when something or someone shinier at the moment comes along you will be forgotten so why waste such a powerful word.     Either that or they are easily bored and have to constantly play roulette with people’s hearts.  I have found that people who are bored easily are the most boring people.  It has been a frustration of mine in the past.  I will not let it happen again.  If a person whether friend or lover cannot use the word love I will take that as a sign that they are not open to a give and take relationship.   I will never be with another man who is constantly looking through me at someone else.  I will never date another man who uses me for what he can get while chasing other women.   It is humiliating and damaging.   No woman should be treated that way and neither should a man.  I will not allow myself to be friends with a man or woman who contributes to the pain of someone else for their own selfish desires.  I need ethical loving people in my life.  I need completely honesty not fake bullshit.

That being said I want to say I do have ethical, honest people in my life.  I have friends who practice true ethical poly.  I have friends who if a guy I was dating approached them for sex or dishonestly would say “fuck off” and  tell me immediately.   I have friends that would come to me to talk if there was ever an issue rather than sneak behind my back.  I trust the people in my life who have proved themselves.  These are the kinds of friends I need in my life.   If the same happened to me, if your bf or gf was trying to be dishonest and I knew about it I would tell them.  I have been hurt deeply by treacherous people who were not grown enough to be honest.