It’s many years since I’ve had to conjure up car games to keep the little ones from wailing ‘are we there yet?’
I only remembered this when I spotted on a friend’s timeline her own variation: an A-Z of depressing words (d=despond, m=morose, u=unremitting – with a special mention for n=nylon!)
Feelings about nylon aside, her list was a reminder of the power of language to shape our mood. By the time I got to ‘z’ (zealot in case you’re intrigued) I could feel my energy draining away.
Try this variation for a game changer
One of the things I return to again and again as I learn to live more softly is changing the story in my head. And it turns out that playing the A-Z game with words that make me feel good, empowered, inspired or even simply amused, is a quickfire way of writing a better story.
Here are some of the words I came up with today. Tomorrow they’ll be different , just as your favourites will be. Why not give it a go and see how you feel?
A is for abundance
B is for breathe
C is for compassion (and also chocolate)
D is delight
E is for enthusiasm
F is for faith
G is for glee
H is for heartfelt (or) anything with heart in it
I is for intimate
J is for joy
K is for Kilimanjaro (it’s personal; you’ll have to trust me on this one)
L is for luscious
M is for miracle
N is for nourish
O is for original
P is for peace
Q is for quiet (how lovely that they follow each other)
S is for softly (of course)
T is for trust
U is for unconditional
V is for vitality
W is for wisdom
X is for xxxx (lots of them)
Y is for YES!
Z is for zzz (which always makes things seem a little brighter)
And a word about the image I’ve used to illustrate this post
The first time I saw this butterfly alphabet on a poster I was completely enchanted. Imagine how brilliant nature is to have created so many shapes and colours that a photographer was able to discover a whole alphabet! You can read all about and get your own copy of the poster here: https://www.butterflyalphabet.com/aboutkjell/index.php