What are your first thoughts when you wake up? Is this something you’ve ever actually even paid attention to? Honestly, for me it wasn’t, until my intuition pointed it out to me.
Energetically, your first thoughts can actually set the tone of your day. So, being conscious of your first couple thoughts and actively trying to change them to choose good ones really can change your vibe and change your life.
It definitely did for me.
Rewind to a couple of years ago when I was in one of my former corporate jobs; working for a major, major globably-known company that paid me so little (like definitely nowhere near enough to live in New York), I had a 2 hour train commute (each way), had some really negative co-workers (I did also have some good ones to be fair) and in the wintertime, I basically never saw the sun as I’d go to work in the dark and come home 12 hours later, still in the dark.
Needless to say, I was not the happiest at this stage of my life. But this part of my life actually was hugely fundamental in waking me up to realizing that I had control of my life and that only I had the power to transform it.
While I had known about manifestation since 2010 (this era was about 2017), I had only really used it to manifest things like concert tickets and meeting celebrities. I had been working with spirit and the angels and card reading for a decade at that point, but I hadn’t gone really deep into energy work yet.
This was the start of that.
I was learning more and becoming more actively aware of how my thoughts and my words were creating my life.
And at one point, I felt the intuitive nudge to pay attention to how I started my day.
I realized my first thoughts in the morning were literally “nooooo” as my alarm would go off, a quarter to six, still pitch black outside. I’d snooze it as much as I could, and then I’d think about how much I didn’t want to go to work. I’d think about how much I hated getting up in the dark and not getting enough sleep. I’d super rush to get ready because I’d snooze my alarm until the last possible second, so I was always anxious I’d miss my train which would make me miss my second train which would make me miss the shuttle bus which would make me late for work. The train was always riddled with delays, so I’d dread that and think about how much I hated commuting. I’d think about which one of my co-workers were in that morning, and if it were the mean ones I’d feel so anxious about what jerks they were inevitably going to be.
And I realized, my days weren’t great because I was starting my days with all this negativity and expecting them to be terrible. I was expecting my co-workers to be mean (and they were), I was expecting the trains to be delayed (and they were), I was expecting to never see the sun - so even on Saturday and Sundays, it’d wind up being a cloudy day so I’d truly go weeks without seeing the sun in the wintertime.
Our expectations are actually quite powerful energetically. The Universe always wants to prove us right - it’s like a genie, they don’t care what your wish is, as long as you state it, it’ll be granted.
There’s actually a great experiment that is all about the power of your expectations, it’s called the Rosenthal effect. To sum it up, a scientist told his team that some rats were dumb and some were smart (even though they were all the same) and asked his team to run tests on the rats and see how well they did. Funny enough, the ones that he had labeled smart did SO much better than the ones that were labeled dumb… and yet they were all the same rat. Thus proving that the team members’ expectations of the rat absolutely influenced how the rat performed.
Crazy, right? Energy is so interesting, isn’t it?
So, back to my life a few years ago, realizing this, I decided I needed to shift. I decided to actively start to choose better thoughts each morning.
Instead of shouting “noooo” when my alarm would go off… I would instead choose to think about how I was grateful for waking up, grateful for another day of life. I would spend my moments in-between snoozed alarms holding a crystal to my heart and thinking about things I was grateful for. I’d thank every part of my body and imagine beautiful rainbow light filling up every inch of it.
As I was getting ready, I’d think that I was grateful to have some sort of income that could help me financially. I was grateful that this used to be a company I had dreamed of working for and I achieved it. I decided to shift to see that I was grateful to take trains instead of driving so I could sleep or watch tv. I actually decided to start to use that train time to meditate and write positive affirmations in my journal. Instead of expecting my co-workers to be mean, I expected them to just ignore me and be quiet that day - and sure enough, whenever I did expect that, they always would. Eventually, some of them got switched to night shifts or got laid off… and the co-workers I did like started getting more day shifts to spend time with me. (We worked for a professional sports league so hours were all over the place).
Overall, when I started doing this, life became much easier. Trains even started getting *slightly* less delays … and even when they did, I’d shift my thinking to be like: “well, I’m delayed for a reason, I trust it’s protecting me from something else… and I’ll still get to work on time.” And I would. Or even if I was late, it would only be a few minutes and no one would care or my boss wouldn’t even be in yet himself.
Doing this and infusing more gratitude into my day, also cleared me up and gave me the idea to create positive oracle cards and to start my business and instagram account!
In this space of gratitude, I even started dating the love of my life - now I did a lot of other things to clear out limiting love beliefs (Here's a blog post about that!), but I know the gratitude helped a well too.
Eventually, I was able to leave that job and now I work for myself…with no commute and no co-workers! I know a lot of that is possible because I began to shift my thoughts to seeing each day as full of gratitude and hope as opposed to endless misery. I expected each day to be easier and for the most part, it was.
Of course, yes, somedays you may forget to start with gratitude and somedays will inevitably be not great days, and that’s okay and normal. That’s life! Sometimes it’s even the universe’s doing to push us to make certain choices or changes or to wake us up (kind of like how I had those bad situations to wake me up to the fact I needed to change!)
But just know that even in those not so great days, just be gentle with yourself, and when you’re ready you can still choose to actively shift your thoughts. Shifting your thoughts to focus more on what’s good than what’s wrong, and to expecting everything to be solved and work out really does have the power to make some big, amazing changes.
And the more you do it, the easier it actually becomes.
Some people will say "Easier said than done" but if you actively try and keep consistently trying and push yourself to trying - it will get easier! You can do it, seriously! Just keep trying, little by little, even if you have to take baby steps, I promise you every little bit makes a difference and every little bit you can try makes it that much less harder to do!
Personally, I also like to consume some sort of empowering, mindset content daily. It really helps keep you on track. Whether that’s listening to a few minutes of an audiobook or reading a chapter of a physical book, watching an inspiring talk on YouTube, or just following your favorite inspiring mindset accounts and reading their posts (like @larosedesreves !!) . It really, really helps your brain normalize trusting the process, feeling gratitude, and that, too will help make it so much easier to shift.
Above all know that you are worthy of great things and you have the power to make your life amazing. Seriously, we are all born equally with equal potential, yes some of us may have had more obstacles and struggles to overcome, but it doesn’t mean we are any less capable of achieving amazing things. There are so many people who rose above terrible circumstances to achieve fantastic things.
You can do anything! So, from now on, start to pay attention to your thoughts first thing in the morning. Choose grateful ones! Think of all the things you are thankful for and all the things you love about life. Think of memories that made you smile or think of someone you love! Think of a funny meme or your favorite line from the silliest show. Any little good thought to boost your mood will help.
You shohls also even start your day by setting intentions for how you want your day to go! Declare your day to be filled with ease and love. Keep your heart open and ask the universe to deliver you all opportunities for your highest good. Know your day will be filled with magic and miracles. You can even ask for some sort of unexpected positive surprise to show up! I’ve done this so many times and either have gotten a free tea or had a nice text from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while or was allowed to leave work 30 mins early! You never know what could be in store for you & all you have to do is ask!
Really just start to Infuse your days with as much gratitude as you can - it really, truly is such an an amazing energy that can & will transform your life. <3
