Today, I bring you my thoughts and experience with the first thing he talked about: getting to know ourselves first. Jay Shetty said: "It is not just being alone that worries us, it's FEELING alone that worries us. This is our opportunity to get to know ourselves. Our biggest mistakes are that we try to get to know other's interests before we know our own. We try to learn about everyone else's favorite color and movie before we know our own. And we learn to know what makes others happy before we learn what makes ourselves happy." Guys, this right here is profound and it's so important! I can tell you this is very true with me. I think this is just a part of why I struggle with social situations and making friends: because it can be apparent that I'm not confident in who I am nor is it always apparent that I love who I am as a person. I think people in general find it more attractive when people love and are confident in who they are. Because when people love and are confident in who they are, they tend to have a positive attitude and outlook on life and they tend to be more fun to be around! It's what makes them exciting! People tend to gravitate to individuals who are positive and fun to be around because they uplift them and make them feel happy. When people are more negative than they are positive, it tends to bring people's moods down. It's okay to express frustration, sadness, anger, and heartbreak from time to time because we are human and it's sometimes necessary to talk about those things. But, from experience, one way I may have become more negative than positive on a regular basis is when I am trying to become comfortable around other people before I am comfortable with myself. It's when I am trying to get to know a bunch of other people's interests and favorite things before I know my own, like Shetty was saying. I start to think "gosh, why doesn't anyone like me?" when this happens. And that one thought can start a whirlwind of other negative thoughts and feelings that affect the way I am, the way I talk and the way I interact with others.
I have reflected on this lack of knowing, being confident in and loving who I am as a person quite a bit more now that I have been in my new ward at church for the last month. It's a new beginning for me and I want it to be a good chapter in my life. In order to do this, however, I need to be more confident in who I am and embrace who I am as well. So I took some initiative this weekend after watching the video I mentioned earlier. I really took to heart what Shetty said about trying to get to know other people's interests before I know my own. With that said, I decided to re-discover what my own interests are and what makes me happy. I did this by finding a quiet spot in the park, googling a "favorite things" questionnaire and journaling my answers to the prompts. It may seem simple to many, but for me, it was therapeutic and I learned a lot more about myself by doing this. I started to love and embrace who I am again. I also became a lot more confident in who I am as a person after I finished journaling. Here are some of my answers I came up with:
Favorite Color: Teal or Aqua Blue
Favorite Environmental Sound: Rain and ocean waves
Favorite Restaurant: Red Robin
Favorite Food I Cook: Fried Chicken and Gravy
Favorite Hobbies: Scrapbooking and writing
Favorite Game: Wackee Six
Favorite Movie: Mean Girls (not because I am a mean girl, haha! It's just really funny!)
Favorite Music Artist: Maddie & Tae
Favorite Sport: Baseball/Softball
The Most Fun Sporting Event: Any Cleveland Indians baseball game
My Greatest Skills: Organization and attention-to-detail
Favorite Job I've Had So Far: Paraprofessional in an elementary school
The Most Unusual Pet I've Had: Charlie, my parents' dachshund
Favorite Kind of Pet: Dog (but not super large dogs)
My Idea of a Perfect Day Out: Hiking or chilling at the lake with friends in the summer
I hope you all enjoyed my insights today as well as learning a little bit more about me!
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