I Can...

One of my favourite "Waste time at work" activities is to jump around blogs until I find something interesting that I haven't read before. Of course I have all my old stand-bys, but invariably, I usually find something new I think is worth sharing.

That's how I stumbled on Jack Sh*t's great blog,which is always a source of hilarity, and occasionally even seriously thought provoking.

Today I found two more, both of which are really well-timed for me.

The first is Caitlin's Operation Beautiful. As an aspiring runner, I've been reading her Healthy Tipping Point for some time, but this is the first time I've wandered over to Operation Beautiful. Operation Beautiful's mission is put an end to the negative self-talk which is so pervasive in our society - that mental voice that sounds every time we look in a mirror and says "You're fat," or "You aren't good enough," or "You can't." Caitlin started by leaving positive, affirming post-its on bathroom mirrors with simple messages like "You're beautiful." She now encourages others to do the same, and Operation Beautiful has spread across countries and even turned into a book.

I love this. I think it's so powerful and yet so simple, and I know I fight every day with my own negative self-talk. I argue with myself constantly - try to fight that voice saying "You can't" or "You're not good enough." I fill my personal spaces with inspirational quotes... but never something as simple as "You're beautiful."

On that same vein, my second find that I wanted to share was Kay Widrick's Operation Affirmation. As Katy points out, Operation Beautiful is about spreading positive messages to other women, to other people, to help combat their negative self-talk. But just as damaging as that negative self-talk is our inability to celebrate our successes. We should be proud of the things we do well in life - whether it be in a weight loss journey, in our job, in interacting with our family, or in just being us.

I'm signing on to both of these. We all know my love of post-it notes, so leaving messages for others should be easy. And I think Operation Affirmation is something which has shown up in my life at just the right time, so from here on out, every day (well, every day I post), I am going to post one of my Virtual Post-It Notes so my affirmation is out here for me to see.

I am also going to start my own little project - an "I Can..." Project. I think we're hard-wired into an "I can't..." mentality. I know it's something I fight with every day. So, along with my affirmation, every day, I'm going to post a post-it note to myself stating something I can do - either something I can actually do, or something I need to believe I can do.

I encourage everyone to join Operation Beautiful and Operation Affirmation, and if you want to join me on the "I Can..." Project, that'd be great too. Drop me a line letting me know where you're posting your "I Cans..." We don't get to hear enough encouraging and positive things in our lives. Let's raise our own voices and start cheering for ourselves.

We can all do this. Are you up for it?