Fool Yourself Less

You did not trust your gut feeling or instinct, but you believed the opinion of someone else.  It fell apart because you did not trust yourself.  The other person made you question yourself and so you caved in, and now you regret your choice.  You fooled yourself into doubting yourself.

You thought you did not need help, guidance, or advice.  You believed you could think for yourself.  You relied on social media’s perspective to form your views and values and you made these thoughts true.  Now you have alienated those who have supported you.  You have fooled yourself into thinking your foundation is outdated.

Not all your thoughts or the views and opinions of others are factual.  You can create thoughts that you believe are true but have no factual basis.  This is where anxiety, worry, and fear take up residence in these thoughts that have no validity.

You created a view or story in your head and begin looking for statements from others and the media that validate these thoughts.  You keep adding to the thoughts until you fool yourself into believing they are true.  You argue and are reactive and negative toward others who challenge your thoughts.

So, who are you trusting with your thoughts?  When you trust someone and they break your trust, it is difficult to trust them again.  Sometimes it is accepting people for who they are and not basing your thoughts and decisions on people who are not consistent and factual.  It is not fooling yourself to believe they will not mess with your thoughts.

How about fooling yourself less?  Start by stating truth statements to your thoughts.  Ask yourself why you had the thought.  Where did it come from?  Why are you entertaining different thoughts about a value or belief that is part of your strong foundation of life and faith?  Focus on what you know is true and your foundational beliefs.  Challenge your thoughts and tell yourself what is true and right and good.

To fool yourself less is not being hopeless or pessimistic, but it is being realistic.   It is also building trust in yourself and living in truth statements that align with your values, morals, and beliefs.  A fool believes popular media opinion as facts without putting any personal thought into it.  Research for yourself.  Talk with those you respect.  Pray for discernment.  How does the idea or thought reflect who you are and who you want to be?

Fooling yourself also involves believing the thoughts that nobody cares, you have no value, life is all bad, and down the negative rabbit hole of self-defeat.  You are thinking in an all or nothing view.  Fool yourself less through statements like “sometimes bad things happen, but good happens too.”  It is capturing your thoughts before you speak them and not allowing them to feed the negativity of anxiety and depression.  Fool yourself less by focusing on what is actually happening around you and name what is true.

Fool yourself less by accepting people for who they are and not living in what you expect or hoped they would be.  You cannot change another person.  You can only accept the person by how they currently behave and act.

Elaine’s website – www.livinginthedifferent.com

Elaine J. Sturtz

Living In The Different