hopefully the title reeled you in and you are curious as to what i mean by saying that i lie to myself. you might even be thinking girl that isn’t even possible, but did you ever think about the fact that our brain not only makes up our dreams, but is also surprised by them? mind blowing right?! so when i say i sometimes lie to myself, and i know i am not alone when i say this, it is so true. at some point or another we all do and it often comes in the i’m not good enough attitude. or that could never happen to me. i don’t have x, y, z. it might even sound like i’m not worthy or i don’t deserve this, but oh honey, those are big fat lies with a capital L. for me lately though the lies have not been focused on myself per say, at least in that same regard, but they have focused around the what ifs; negative addition.

this past weekend, friday to be exact, i ended up going out to my friends cabin to celebrate her birthday. up until the day the day or two before though i honestly was so overwhelmed not because i didn’t want to go, but because i was thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong (a habit that has seemed to increase over covid19); getting seasick, bad weather, being stuck, not feeling well, etc, etc. etc. they may sound kind of silly, but they were some real fears. regardless of the fears though i wanted to go and i hated that these fears were even present in my thoughts. i was worked up. i was stressed, and then stressed about being stressed. let me tell you those lies are dangerous little guys. why? because they can keep us from doing the things we want and sometimes even need. for me, this time it looked like almost skipping out on a fun cabin trip.

thankfully, i was able to recognize those lies - identifying them as such was my saving grace. well.. that along with some meditation, and jesus (worship music and lots of prayer). and guess what? i survived! unfortunately i had a headache while there and a couple times i noticed some anxious thoughts, but having been able to pin point the lies and combat them with reassuring words as well as re-grounding myself i was able to not only go, but also have a good time. not to mention it reminded me just how much of powerful forces we are and especially when we take the time to understand how our vessel works.

the time we are living in right now is scary. it is uncertain. it is unpredictable and challenging. at times isolating, but. yes, there is always a BUT. but it is a beautiful time to learn more about ourselves, understanding how our vessel works, and not only be able to identify those pesky lies because they will come, but learning to combat them with more uplifting words.

i think one of the biggest things for me when pushing aside those lies is not letting them stop me form whatever it is i want to do. i could have easily skipped out on the cabin trip, but not only would i have missed out on a night filled with fun and laughter i would have let those lies win. they would have had the power and the more i let them have power the less power i have over my life, over my goals. we have to challenge the lies and when we successfully do so we create more reason to not believe them.

so, what lies have you been telling yourself lately and what are some ways you can combat them?