Toxic Waste

No kidding: It said it was bad for you




Have you ever eaten one of these? I haven’t. I’ve never even seen one. The title is intriguing. Can you imagine: Toxic Waste? Nuclear Sludge? Sounds delicious, right?

Did you hear the news? The Toxic Waste candy bar has been recalled. Turns out, it has high levels of lead and is indeed toxic. A clever marketing tactic gone bad. One headline read No kidding: It said it was bad for you.

Even without the high levels of lead, I’m not sure I could ever put something called Toxic Waste into my body. Just goes against my grain. Maybe you’re not as sensitive to the label as I am, but now that you know the truth, I’m confident that you would avoid it.

We wouldn’t put toxic waste into our bodies, but what are we putting in our minds? The air is filled with toxic waste, and I don’t mean air pollution. I’m not just talking about the obvious things like pornography and filthy language. I’m talking about the negative messages we absorb every day.

Gossip, arguments, comparisons all take a toll on our well-being, and so do the implied expectations that we should look and act like movie stars and fashion models. There is a lot of fat talk circulating. When we indulge in fat talk or other trash talk about our bodies we not only sabotage our efforts to feel good about ourselves, but we sabatoge our body’s ability to support us. Thinking negative thoughts about your body make it that much harder for your body to do it’s amazing work.

You wouldn’t talk that way to your best friend. Why would you talk that way to yourself?

Bad habits are sometimes hard to change. The quickest way to diffuse the toxic waste is appreciation. Find things to appreciate. Appreciate those around you. Appreciate your family and your friends. Appreciate your comforts, your blessings, your opportunities. Appreciate your talents and your abilities. Take time to think about your amazing body and appreciate what it does for you each and every day. Your body shows up for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That is incredible.

Thank your body for its tireless service. Do something nice for your body today.

Toxic Waste? Who needs it?

Linda Garner

Something Wonderful

“By being yourself you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” Edwin Elliot

I’m not pretty enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough. No one likes me. I’m not popular. My clothes aren’t cute enough. I hate my hair. I hate my freckles. I wish I were blonde. I wish I were taller. I wish I were slimmer. I’m ugly. I’m fat. I’m a loser.

If you’re a woman,or a young women, chances are you’ve had thoughts like these. These thoughts are demeaning and drain us of our self-worth. Somehow, we have been programmed to believe that our worth is somehow attached to the way we look. TV, movies, and magazines give us a distorted view of beauty and reality. Trying to live up to the distorted pictures we see is not fulfilling. No wonder we sometimes feel empty.

A beautiful woman is one who accepts and appreciates herself as she is. A beautiful woman loves and appreciates her body, flaws and all. A beautiful woman radiates confidence and smiles often. She believes in herself and doesn’t compare herself to the images on the screen. A beautiful woman takes care of herself. She is comfortable in her own skin and doesn’t try to live up to anyone’s expectation. She is content to be herself.

What if we could change the way we think? What if we could change the way we see ourselves. Instead of the trash talk at the beginning of this post, we could say: I am beautiful. I am clever and smart. I am good. I am amazing. I am enough. Everyone likes me. People love me. People are so nice to me. I love my clothes. I adore my hair. Freckles are fun. I like being myself. I am beautiful just the way I am. I am a winner.

Silence the negative chatter in your head. You’re in charge. Take control of your thoughts. For every negative thought that pops into your head, give yourself three compliments. You give complements to others. How about treating yourself kindly, for a change. Do something nice for yourself. Think beautiful thoughts.

You’re beautiful. Yes, you. It’s true, but it won’t mean a thing until you believe it. Go look at yourself in a mirror and tell yourself so. Look in those gorgeous eyes and say “Hi Beautiful. You look fantastic.” It’s okay to love yourself. I promise you it will make all the difference. Start today.

You don’t need to be like anyone else. It’s okay to be different. Different is awesome. There is nobody else on the planet that is exactly like you. You are amazing. Appreciate your unique gifts. Appreciate your unique beauty. Be yourself. That’s something only you can do.

It's true, you know... By being yourself you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.

Linda Garner

Spam (not the kind you eat)

A few days ago, I discovered an enormous amount of spam on my website. Over 9,000 spam comments had been posted on the website for my book, Some Secrets Hurt. Deleting as fast as I could I was able to delete about 4,000 comments in about 3 hours. As soon as I left, new spam appeared, and I knew I could never do this alone. I asked my web administrator for help and he cleaned up the site and put new controls in place.

This experience reminded me of the negative messages that surround us. The negative things we hear, see, and experience are like spam. Our world is filled with unsolicited, unhelpful words that clutter our thoughts and drag us down.

Spam can be a nuisance on any site, but if we are not watchful, it may find its way onto our hard drive where the damage can be extensive and hard to reverse.

Whether we like it or not, negative messages have an impact on the way we see ourselves. We need to get rid of that negative energy. Let's hit the delete key as often as we need to, and then get help from loving friends and family to clean up our environment. We may even need to get help from our site administrator to help us clean things up.

In this case, my site administrator is a loving Heavenly Father. I know I can trust him to help me understand my true worth.

I invite you to join me on my journey of self worth. This site will be built on positive messages. Consider it your weekly dose of self worth.

Isn't time you learned to love yourself?

Linda Garner