As you know, today’s the first day of Lent when it’s traditional to give up something after the excesses of Shrove Tuesday – which seem pretty tame by 2010 standards. I can report that I made pancakes from scratch last night and without starting a house fire! So, the first thing I’ll be stopping is late night carbs – bad, bad, bad!
In recent years, I’ve noticed a trend towards taking something up rather than stopping a thing for the forty days of Lent. Whilst I appreciate this isn’t Lent proper, I’m all for whatever helps people make positive change in their lives, and it does come at a handy time to have another crack at those New Year’s resolutions.
I’ve had mixed success over the years with my Lenten commitments. The year I decided that I’d give up chocolate was going quite well until I realised that three weeks was only just halfway there. The same length of time again seemed beyond me and I caved with the view that if I was to give up something that I really liked, nearly six weeks was far too long a time to do it. Same story in the wine years.
I appreciate the irony here and that the self test is exactly that of giving up something you enjoy for a substantial period of time. However, I know that I – along with many others – am poor at deprivation, and that self care is an important part of being the best we can be.
So, I’m going to be giving up the negative self talk – you know the stuff. All the undermining chat we do to ourselves which holds us back. I know it won’t be easy – it’s a strongly ingrained habit that we do subconsciously – and I also know it’ll be really good for me to stop.
What will you do?
As writing things down helps with commitment:
I commit to stopping negative self talk for this period of Lent. Oh, and late night carbs too – in for a penny…
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