Day 101
Affirmation:
Even if I am sinking in the negativity of a situation, I have the choice to lift myself out of the poison and be purified.
I would not choose to bathe in physical poison and I will not choose to bathe in emotional poison either.
I choose to be purified and made better and stronger by life’s experiences.
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Every difficult, challenging, and painful experience has the potential to both poison and purify. When a situation poisons, it promotes negativity and toxic emotions. It may cause us to become defensive, detached, or walled up. Those who have been poisoned by their life experiences are often thought of as mean, bitter, resentful, or hurtful people. Sometimes they are phobic, depressed or suicidal. They may just be chronically unhappy, worried, or complaining. When a situation purifies, it fosters positive emotions and well-being. Someone who has been purified by an experience is made better, stronger, more determined and more positive for it. Those who have been purified have usually tasted the poison but have chosen to live without it. People who have been purified by life are thought of as survivors, role models, and heroes. They are the people who cause us to say, “I don’t know how he/she does it. They are the ones who tell others to ‘make lemonade’. You rarely hear them complain. They exhibit an optimism and determination that allows them to be and be better for their trials. So what makes the difference? Choice. Every experience that comes our way offers us a chance to become poisoned by negativity, or to be purified by the experience and better for it, but we alone decide which it will be.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki poses with Jim Martinson, an Army veteran who won the gold medal in downhill skiing at the 1996 Paralympics in Albertville, France, at the 24th National Disabled American Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colo.
PHOTO BY DONNA MILES
365 Days of Inspiration 