Stamps are for boxes!

Whew!
What a release! The air of negative energy that pressed down on me last week has been lifted. I feel back to my old self again. Four or five days can seem like an eternity when you wake up dreading the day. Unaware of what kind of mood you will be in from one minute to the next can make us immobile. We can be held hostage to our fear that our bad mood will linger forever.

That was the catalyst for my mood to change. I thought the gloom may stay forever. Slowly I was convincing myself that the easy going, chipper Liz was fading into a new, slightly depressed and more irritable person. I even had one colleague confirm my doubt. "The closer you get to the thirty the more things change in your mood" she said matter of fact. Was I destined to be in a foul mood for life?

When we put a stamp on something in this society, we tend to think it's true. Packages come to my door that may state, "Do not bend" or "This side up". I do as the instructions say. When I brought Christmas decorations down from the attic, I noticed my own handwriting labeling some boxes as "Fragile". I could not see in the box to see what was so fragile, but I more carefully handled the item based on it's description.

Stamping and labeling things can be a positive thing. I may have flung a box of china down the stairs mistaking it for the stockings. But, stamping people, or ourselves, is not a good thing.

"I'm just not romantic" one husband tells me in session. "Never have been the type to make candle lit dinners and bring home flowers."

"I'm not good at math" an anxious 20 year old confesses. "I can't finish school because I can't do math."

"I may always be like this." I tearfully said to my husband. "I may never snap out of this gloom."

The worried husband, anxious teenager and momentarily sad therapist were all wrong!

One of the most beautiful things about being human is that we have the power to change ourselves! We can re-invent who we are, or most importantly, how we define ourselves at any point in time. Erase any stamps that you have wrongly believed to be true. Start believing in the truth: That you can change your situation. You will not be in the same place tomorrow if you start internalizing truth rather than myths. Don't believe the lies your brain may configure. Believe the truth. You have the power to change! Let this be the only stamp you live by today.