Win for the Day: I took the tissue out of my pocket before washing my jeans!
We all see the posts celebrating big changes in someone’s recovery journey: eating pizza, going for a hike or traveling for the first time in years. Big shifts like these are amazing and definitely should be celebrated, but there’s often some time in between those really monumental shifts. Because of that, it’s easy to think that what you’re doing isn’t working and your brain isn’t shifting. It's really hard to stay motivated and committed to our practice when we don't think it's working.
What we all do have every single day is lots of smaller, but still significant wins. They are easy to overlook or dismiss as not worth celebrating, but they are. Those smaller changes in our thoughts, emotions and behaviors are proof that our brains are changing. Noticing them helps to keep us motivated and feeling confident that what we are doing is working. Is remembering to take the tissue out of my pocket life changing? Nope, it sure isn’t. Will it have an impact on my health? I doubt it. Will noticing my success and taking some time to celebrate it affect my health? You bet it will! Doing this will help me look for and pay attention all the things that are going well for me day to day. That approach helps to direct my brain to focus on the good instead of what’s not so great.
Pausing to celebrate my win will also shift my neurochemistry. Just taking a few moments to acknowledge my success of washing my clothes sans the Kleenex helps to create the neurochemistry that supports healing, growth and repair, instead of the neurochemistry that supports fight/flight/freeze. It might seem silly and that it will have no impact on healing and recovery, but looking for those smaller/more subtle changes every day is an important part of the rewiring process.
Better health, one small win at a time!
* Photo Credit: original washing machine tissue art courtesy of S Hamburg.
Let's Stay In Touch:
Get Notified of New Offerings and New Blog Posts
Connie:
Thank you... a great reminder. Even acknowledging the small stuff changes the brain chemistry.
Linda Stacey 😀
I loved it when Connie mentioned in Recovering Together group about the "tissue" small win. Totally resonated! My pockets just LOVE those tissues. So I told my husband and he had a chuckle. The next morning I did the laundry and very carefully with a big smile removed all of my tissues. My husband folded the load and on the top of my pile of clothes was a freshly washed tissue he had lovingly folded! So who knew I had left a tissue behind, although now it was clean! Big laugh. Anyhow I made the tissue "art" face for my husband and put it where he eats lunch to give him a laugh... so it's been the gift from Conni…
❤️❤️❤️
What a great reminder. It’s so easy to feel discouraged when those “big” wins don’t seem to happen. Thank you for reminding us that even taking the proverbial Kleenex out is a win that is worthy of celebration!