A Story of a Shift Miracle

“Oh little sweetie — yeah, go ahead and check again if you need to.” She said the words in her own mind to herself and smiled. She walked back into her home and checked the stove to make sure it was off even though she knew it was. It was a ritual she did often — just one of those ways her mind liked to fool her when she wasn’t being completely aware of what she was doing.

She thought back to years before when the voice would’ve sounded much different. There used to be a voice she used for herself that was harsh and critical and she was sure THAT voice would have yelled at her for being “stupid” or “silly”, as she knew the oven was off.

The journey from the voice she previously used for herself and the one she uses now is one of her favorite Shift Miracles. It started out that she became aware of the voice — it happened suddenly one day. She heard the harshness and the criticism and knew she didn’t want to continue this behavior of yelling at herself. She didn’t allow others to treat her this way so why would it be ok if she, herself, used this voice — even inside her own mind.

From that day forward, there was a new awareness of how she talked to herself. It was a gradual process. And in the beginning, they felt like very small steps. At the same time, she knew they were BIG. Just that first step of noticing was HUGE. Nothing else happened except she became aware. That was the first Shift Miracle. Slowly, other little shifts happened. The tone of her voice became softer. Next, she really noticed the words she was using when she spoke to herself. Then she changed the words when she noticed them and finally, she only used words that were kind with herself.

Slowly, the little Shift Miracles added up to a HUGE Shift Miracle — even when she made a ‘mistake’ or when something happened that she felt she should’ve seen coming, she was compassionate and gentle with herself. She knew she had done her best. She spoke to herself as she would a dear friend or a child. Each time she did this, like today with the stove, she acknowledged the journey.

She knew the power of the Shift Miracles. Those small ones — sometimes very hard to notice — are key when we want to change a behavior that isn’t serving us. So now she has trained herself to be on alert for those Shift Miracles. When she notices one, however small, she acknowledges it and lets herself know that things are shifting. She doesn’t focus on how far she still has to go, but instead focuses on that Shift Miracle and its beauty. When her focus is here, she feels liberated, free and full of possibility.

Mood Lady images drawn by Debra Valentino.

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