David A. Mosley: April 2018

Monday, April 30, 2018

Feeling Negative? Questions to Prompt Positivity

For the past few weeks, I've been strapped in tight on an emotional rollercoaster, soaring up and whizzing down and then climbing back up again. My surgery went well and I'm recovering much more quickly than I thought I would (hooray!), and I over the past two weeks, I was amazed by the kind comments, emails, DMs, and texts I received after writing The Power of (Not) Telling Your Story. I've been filled with gratitude and love for all those who have shown me support — both in real life and online — over the past few weeks. The past few weeks have been filled with so many more positive experiences than I would have imagined. But, of course, I've also been recovering from surgery, dealing with the ups and downs of physical and emotional pain, coping with the flood of emotions that came from sharing some of what I'd been going through, and struggling, more often than I'd like to admit, to stay positive.

Awhile back, I'd jotted down some questions for myself in my Notes app when I was having a tough time, and I accidentally stumbled across them again last week, just when I needed them most! (It's funny how that happens, isn't it? The things you need to see always seem to find you when you need to see them!) I thought I'd share them with you this week since they've really been helping me when I feel like my emotions are getting the best of me.

I don't know about you, but I tend to get stuck in my own head way too often (a side-effect of being an introvert, I suspect!), and sometimes I get so lost wandering around in there that I forget that I can take action, rather than just allowing my emotions to guide me around. Here are some of the questions I've been asking myself when I'm feeling negative, overwhelmed, or just spending too much time thinking about things that aren't productive for my mental health.

First, I like to check in to see if I've been engaging in any not-so-healthy activities that might be leading me down the road to Negative Town. I ask myself...

HAVE YOU BEEN...

Scrolling endlessly online?
Worrying unnecessarily?
Comparing yourself to others?
Abusing any substances?
Pacing around aimlessly?
Overanalyzing other people?
Eating food that's unhealthy?
Spending money needlessly?
Focusing on stressful subjects?
Hanging with negative people?
Thinking only about yourself?

If I've answered yes to any of those, I know I'm not on the path to Positivity City, and I need to reroute myself. Sometimes this can be more challenging that I'd like it to be. As much as I know I want to be more positive, negativity can be so alluring (and, having spent so much of my life with negativity as my default, it's also oddly comforting). So, in order to venture down a more positive path, I have to convince myself to take an action that I know will shift my mindset. Here's what I ask myself to get started...

HAVE YOU TRIED...

Creating something?
Taking a relaxing bath?
Calling a friend to chat?
Reading a new book?
Practicing some yoga?
Listening to music?
Going for a walk?
Helping someone else?
Learning something?
Playing with Barkley?
Completing a task?
Being grateful?

More often than not, one of those things will inspire me to get up (usually out of my bed, where I can be found most often, scrolling through my phone for hours, ugh!) and try something that'll help me get out of my head and out of my rut. Experiencing emotions (even the negative ones) is never a bad thing, but if you find yourself overanalyzing everything, stressing to the point that it's all you can do, or ruminating on things that are out of your control, it's not helpful to stay in that emotional state. These questions prompt me to get out of Negative Town and make my way to Positivity City. These are obviously tailored to my preferences, but I highly recommend making your own list of "Have You Tried..." to keep on hand when you're in your head and need to get out. I'd love to hear what you'd include on your list! Let me know in the comments below!

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Finding Confidence in Yourself

Finding confidence in yourself opens you up to a world of opportunities that you never knew existed. I have realized that as you gain more confidence in yourself, things work ... Continue Reading...

Saturday, April 21, 2018

What Does Emotional Attachment Mean?

What Is Emotional Attachment? It means attachment and clinging to people, beliefs, habits, possessions and circumstances. You feel emotionally attached to them and are unable and unwilling to let go, ... Continue Reading...

Friday, April 20, 2018

Positively Present Picks : April 20, 2018

"If you only walk on sunny days, you'll never reach your destination."

Paulo Coelho

PRINT SHOP! : new, new, new prints in the shop! check 'em out

Even If You Don't Feel Ready : "there's no telling where a ripple might lead"

How I Learned to Stop Absorbing Others' Emotions : so important!

Warm Ocean Mind : love this way of thinking about mindfulness

Legendary Ladies: 50 Goddesses to Empower and Inspire You

The Evolution of the Alphabet : for all you fellow letter lovers out there

Suffering from Imposter's Syndrome? : this tweet will speak to you

Much Loved : awww, a book of photographs of old stuffed animals

The Legacy of Childhood Trauma : sad, but so worth the read

Pain x Resistance : you can't avoid pain, but you can avoid suffering

Amazing Pencil Drawings : Heather Rooney is so incredibly talented

MONDAY : bookmarking this image for every Monday forever

Tomorrow I'll Be Brave : this looks like such a cute kids' book!

Check out my reading list on GoodReads.

Legendary Ladies: 50 Goddesses to
Empower and Inspire You
Ann Shen

My Name Is Lucy Barton
Elizabeth Strout

I write books too! Check it out...

The Positively Present Guide to Life

Effortless Inspiration Series:
Gratitude, Living in the Moment,
Compassion, and Forgiveness

Stay Positive: Daily Reminders
from Positively Present

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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

7 Motivational Factors that Will Encourage Student to Study Well

Climbing a mountain does not happen at once. More than 40% of high school students are chronically disengaged from their educational institutions as reported by The National Research Council. It ... Continue Reading...

Monday, April 16, 2018

The Power of (Not) Telling Your Story

Since 2009, I’ve been here on Positively Present, writing about my life and the various challenges I’ve faced in my quest for living more optimistically and mindfully. I’ve written about the ups and the downs, the loves and the losses, the positive progress and the painful setbacks. I’ve written about tough topics, like my sobriety, and easy ones, like publication of my first book. But, since 2015, I’ve only briefly touched on a set of circumstances that have altered my entire life.

I’ve avoided the details because I didn’t want to hurt or embarrass other people. I kept quiet because that’s what “respectable” people do. I also kept quiet because what had happened — the sex, the surgeries, the shame, the embarrassing behaviors I tolerated, the pills, the anger and anxiety, the suicidal thoughts — didn’t feel very “positively present.”

But last night I got all fired up. I’m going to finally write about it!, I told myself. I’m going to write about ALL of it, and I don’t care who reads it or what they have to say! My heart was pumping with excitement, and I was convinced that this was it — the writing was what would free me from the heartache, telling my story would set me free from all of this pain. I pulled out all of my old journals, the notebook filled with scrawled, sad poetry, and leafed through them. I’ll put it all out there, I thought, And maybe I’ll even just put all of these journal entries up as they are! I’ll be so brave, sharing my story in such a raw way!

I looked up an old Anne Lamott quote — “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” — and lettered it with a fierce excitement. Yes, I thought to myself, I will write about it all, every little thing, and he will read it and he will finally understand how much it hurt — and still hurts— and then… And it was in the midst of that thought when I realized it: this wasn’t about my own healing or even (as I’d tried to convince myself) about helping someone else through a similar situation. It was about him.

Sharing all of the pain — the trysts and the surgeries and the disappointments and the lonely nights and the rejected invitations and the tear-soaked pillowcases and the loss of so much damn time — was still, for me, about getting him to really see me. I could tell myself otherwise — “This will be healing!” or “Sharing what I’ve been through will help others!” — but, embarrassing as it is to admit, it was really about getting his attention, about somehow convincing him that what had happened — something that wasn’t his fault but that he certainly had a part in — meant that he owed me something.

Over the course the three and a half years we were spending time together, he told me countless times not to have hope. But I did anyway. Hope can be an amazing thing, but there’s a reason it was found in Pandora’s box, beneath all of the world’s evils. It can cause a great deal of heartache, too.

Despite what he said and did — and, more importantly, didn’t do — I continued to believe all of this pain would live up to that old Ovid quote, “Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.” I never wrote about the truth of it — never even mentioned him here over the course of the past nearly four years — because I thought to myself, Someday this will all make sense and I don’t want to write anything that might upset him or make it even more difficult to have hope. I will be patient. I will be tough. I will be quiet and good.

Over the weekend, as I was gathering my "evidence" — Look at all of the misery I wrote about in my journal! Look at all of these words he said to me that I’ve written down word-for-word! Imagine how good it will feel to put this all out there for everyone to see! — I was focused on the opposite of being quiet. I was going to be LOUD. I was going to scream every ounce of truth onto the screen until my fingers were numb from typing. I was going to be fierce and brave and unbelievably raw.

But here’s the thing: screaming the truth won’t make him hear me. Telling everyone what happened, what it’s been like for me since the summer of 2015, won’t make him do the things I wish he would do. Words, no matter how powerful, won’t turn a man into someone he is not meant to be.

Writing might be cathartic for me, but sharing this story with the world isn’t necessary for me to recover from this. He isn’t necessary for me to recover from this. He might be the catalyst for this story, but he isn’t the author. I am.

It’s my story to tell — and maybe someday I will — but, for now, as I prepare for my fourth (!!!!) surgery tomorrow, I’m going to do what I should have been doing all along: I’m going choose compassion over comparison. I’m going to remind myself that a person who can act with indifference in the face of another’s pain must be in pain himself. I’m going to focus on healing over hoping. I’m going to remind myself that people are not projects, and the only pain I can truly mend is my own.

Yes, I own this story. Yes, I can yell it as loudly as I’d like, for the world to hear. And part of me still does want to write every detail, to put all of the sex and the scars into words so that I can feel the freedom of having finally said it all. But when it comes to telling our stories — the good, the bad, the oh-god-why-is-this-my-life — I’m realizing that peace probably won’t come from pushing publish on a post. Peace won’t come from having someone else see my pain. Peace comes from feeling that pain, living through it, and moving forward without dragging it behind you.

Maybe putting it all in writing would be like leaving behind a heavy bag on a hard trek. Maybe setting it down would make the rest of this climb a little easier for me. But maybe, just maybe, I can put the bag down without putting it into words. Maybe there’s more to being a survivor than sharing the story of your survival. (Or maybe I’m about to write a tell-all book putting it all there, ha!)

Whatever I end up sharing or keeping to myself, I hope this post serves as a reminder that, yes, you have a right to tell your story, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. You own your stories. Tell them if you want, but don’t forget that it’s not the telling that will set you free. You have to do that all on your own.