Jennifer Sparks's Blog, page 2
October 23, 2020
Day 24: Count Your Blessings
Today’s Journal Prompt: Can you make a list of ten blessings?
One of my favorite things to do when I need a little positive boost in the right direction is to count my blessings. We all have so many different people and things to be grateful and thankful for. Do you count your blessing regularly? If not, it’s a great habit to get into. It won’t take you more than a few minutes per day, but can have a huge impact on your life, how you feel, and how you interact with those around you.
The benefits...
October 22, 2020
Day 23: Practice Makes Perfect
As with many other skills in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to forgiveness. That’s why something like this 30 Day Forgiveness Challenge works so well. Each day you’re reminded to think about and practice forgiveness. During the first few days, you may have found it difficult to stick to this new habit that you’re working on establishing. By now, I hope you’re finding it much easier. I can tell that people are opening the emails and reading the blogs.
Forgiving should start to become ...
October 21, 2020
Day 22: Talk It Out
If you’re having a hard time forgiving one particular person, it may be time to talk it out. Sometimes our anger and pain is rooted in misunderstandings. Sometimes we simply have a hard time understanding and seeing the other person’s point of view. Sometimes we feel misunderstood and ignored. All of these scenarios can make it hard to forgive and move on. We feel stuck and often the easiest way to get unstuck is to have a conversation.
That’s right… sometimes you have to confront the person you...
October 20, 2020
Day 21: Don’t Go To Sleep Angry
Several people have told me that the secret to a happy marriage/good relationships was to never go to bed angry. In other words, don’t get into a fight or an argument and then go to sleep seething with all that anger. It is good advice and it’s just as helpful when it comes to successful relationships and forgiveness. The feeling you go to bed with is likely going to be the one you wakeup with AND your magical subconscious mind is going to be working overtime while you try to sleep.
So, let’s ca...
October 18, 2020
Day 20: Using Prayer And Mediation To Help Forgive
Every culture in the world has a tradition of prayer and/or meditation and for good reason. Both practices have a lot of benefits from clearing the mind and focusing your thoughts, to better health and increased happiness. That’s pretty powerful stuff and something we can and should use during our own journey of forgiveness. Both prayer and meditation can help you clear your head and let go of anger and pain. As we already discussed in previous posts, that’s a big part of forgiving. It puts you ...
Day 19: Forgiveness Can Be A Daily Choice
How is your own journey to forgiveness coming along? I hope you’re finding my daily musings on the topic here on the blog helpful. I also hope that you’re making progress. Embracing forgiveness isn’t always easy. It’s not something that comes natural to us and it takes a while to turn feelings of anger and resentment into those of forgiveness. We talked about how this is a process that takes time and that we have to work to form those new emotional habits.
As with all new habits, we have to acti...
Day 18: Opening A Dialog About Your Anger And Pain
We are social creatures and as such, we need to communicate. It helps to talk things through when we’re hurt, confused, happy, or feel any strong emotion. Forgiveness is no different. In an earlier post we talked about how important it is to be very clear on what you are forgiving and the pain it’s causing you. That’s sometimes easier said than done. We also talked extensively about the fact that forgiveness is a process. And during that process some days are easier than others. To be perfectly ...
October 17, 2020
Day 17: Gratitude Can Help You Forgive
Today’s Journal Prompt: Make a gratitude list. Can you list 50 things you are grateful for?
There are so many things I am grateful for. From my family, to the roof over my head, and having awesome blog readers like you, there are a lot of great people and things in my life. I’m sure you feel the same when you take the time to think about it and make a list. Yet, we often take these positive things for granted. Practicing gratitude has become a bit of a lost art in a world that’s more focused on ...
October 15, 2020
Day 16: Journaling Your Forgiveness Journey
WRITE IT OUT!
I’ve mentioned keeping a journal as a helpful tool during this forgiveness challenge. I thought today we’d talk about this in a little more detail. There are a lot of advantages to journaling. If you’ve kept a diary in the past, you may be familiar with some of them. If you haven’t tried it yet, I seriously encourage you to give it a try. It can be very helpful. A journal or diary is always available to you and ready to listen as you pour our thoughts and feelings on the page. NOTH...
October 14, 2020
Day 15: Starting The Process Of Forgiveness
Today’s Journal Prompt: What can you exchange for the pain and anger that you will release? What else is out there waiting for you with new space in your heart and head? What old thought patterns can you see emerging as you look closely at forgiving? How can you put changes into action?
Today we’re going to recap a few of the points I’ve shared in the past few post and get serious about starting this process of forgiveness. So far we’ve talked about making the decision to forgive. You also know ...
