SMILE

I have been grouchy.  I have been tired.  I have been complaining.  Life and death is in the tongue.  I know 'cause the Bible tells me so.  My tongue has been inappropriate at times here lately.

I was trying to figure out how to snap out of my funk!  I read James 3 and had the revelation that I had to stop speaking so negatively, but the tongue is a result of the heart, so I needed to trace this farther back.

In my communications class in college one of the first things they taught us was that a large part of how we communicate comes through our body language. 

One of the biggest changes in me over the past 6 months is that I don't smile half as much as I used to.  I am communicating, with my tongue and sometimes with my face, I am complaining about my circumstances.

One of the things I learned with Tyke was when he was really dysregulated I could help him by asking him to smile.  When Tyke was focused on smiling he could not continue whatever negative thought pattern was causing the dysfunctional behaviors.  If it worked for Tyke, why not me?

Yesterday I decided I was going to smile even if there was no good reason for it. I started smiling and I caught myself in negative thought patterns.  If I was going to maintain the smile I had to come up with reasons for it. I had to toss the negativity.  I actually felt really happy!  We had such a great day as a family and I liked being in this family.

So those of you that know me, if you see me grinning stupidly, its because I am going to hang onto my joy!  I am going to SMILE!