Changing your mind changes your life in many ways. Going to SWIHA, I have re-evaluated many things in my life for the better. During my journey, I realized how I handled tough conversations, happiness, and even sadness was not the right way to process emotions. Shortly after realizing that, I also realized these were taught behaviors and I was seeing no growth in the person that I wanted to be in life. After dissecting myself, I noticed I had to change my mindset and the way I saw things.
Having a new perspective on life creates new opportunities to grow, and allows a new outlook on old traumas. In addition, you have to learn how to forgive others you stay in bondage with. Although these are three great ways to change your perspective on life, they are tough methods to acquire. However, with dedication and new techniques, and sometimes professionals such as life coaches, and psychiatrists, or finding new surroundings, you can change your perspectives on life.
Growing up I had a not-so-normal life. Even though normal looked different to everyone, I knew as a child the way we were living was not normal. I had my mother and father together, however, they struggled with their addiction, which led to the typical day-to-day struggles. As a child, we worried about shelter, food, and clothing. Despite all the obstacles I faced, my parents still allowed us to go to school to get an education, which was my hope. At the time, that was the only outlook I had as a child to get the basic needs of life. Even though I came from a tough upbringing, I never looked at “having a good life” as unattainable. I always knew based on where I came from that I would have to work a little harder to achieve my goals.
Having a new outlook on life changed my thoughts of my parents; and parenting. Our family was not just a “normal” family size, we had a family of 10 (4 girls and 4 boys, including the parents). I granted grace instead of anger to my parents because they may not have known or had the resources to help them get out of that addiction. In addition, when I became a parent, it made me realize how hard it is to be a parent along with dealing with daily challenges as a human being. Also, during the struggles that I went through as a child, I acquired great life skills such as how to survive with less and how to stretch a meal.
Forgiving was one of the hardest things that I used to suffer with. I used to lash out at my mother and father because I had displaced anger for things I went through as a child. I hope that I can go back and heal the old wounds that happened as a child. However, over the years I have learned to grant people grace. Allowing them to be humans and acknowledge the fact that I am going to have to heal without the apologies that I think I deserve or that I do deserve. However, my perspective has changed to being unable to forgive people to me, it is like “holding your breath and waiting for the other person to die”. In addition, freeing myself from any type of bondage and holding on to the grudge does not allow me any growth.
Throughout my journey to self-healing, I have learned to reframe my perspective on many things in life using a few techniques to help me grow. Those would be having new perspectives give me a new idea to live. Healing from past traumas allows growth and sets me FREE from traumas that have held me captive. Changing my Mindset has definitely changed my life set.
