Notes to self

Notes, little reminders through out your day and life that are often there to help you. I for one use a lot of notes through out my day. I go through a stack of post its about once every 2 weeks. Part of it is the busy life, others are sometimes I get easily distracted. They are there to help me remember things that need to get done, things that are important, things to look into, etc. It helps keep things organized, but the down side is that sometimes the little notes become disorganized and that’s a problem in an of it self.

Then there are the mental notes. Often Just little things to take care of. Packing lists, to-do lists, shopping lists, songs, nothing to crazy or big, just little reminders through out the day. But there is another level to the mental notes. These are things that you may not even realize you are picking up on. Things people say. Little things people do. Mannerisms, tones, subtle changes in stories. It’s all there, it’s just a matter of if you consciously pick up on it or not. Many people don’t, moving through life just taking things at face value, accepting things for what they are. Seems like a decent way to go about it. Then there are others, brain constantly picking up and analyzing things. Picking up on little details, making note of little changes in actions, tones, behaviors.

These are the types of mental notes that help you connect dots. Through out interactions with people you pick up on these, the more you interact on the day to day the more you pick up on. You begin to notice subtle things about people. You grow your ability to read them. Little things like when they are deep in thought they blink more, or when they are feeling uncomfortable about a silence or topic they make a certain noise or do something like yawn. Some people are able to do this very naturally, others need to work at it a bit harder. It’s defiantly a nice skill to have. It helps you gauge people and your surroundings. Get a better understanding of how people work. What correlations there are between people, what patterns repeat and how they affect their attitude and thinking. It’s also a handy skill to have to be able to better understand what is or isn’t honest. Unless someone is very skilled at the art of deception, there are always subtle little hints that something they are saying is not always honest. You can start to discern what you need to question and how to question it. Giving you a clearer picture of what is going on and in many ways what their intentions are.

Making mental notes of this kind can definitely help you along the way, especially on your healing journey. As you move forward there will often be times where someone comes along and can easily sway you one way or the other, sometimes back into old patterns or beliefs without you even realizing it. You miss the little cues of manipulation, or deception. The little jabs to make you question yourself, or those around you. The little tomes that imply guilt for you doing something that used to be ok but suddenly isn’t because it doesn’t suit them. Being able to make the little mental notes of patterns and changes helps you better see the light and the path ahead. It’s not always easy to pick up on , and even harder the closer you are to someone, but training yourself to make little notes on things that seem off, different, or out of the ordinary can help you better get an understanding of how you have changed and grown and what may no longer align with who you want to be. So keep an eye out and keep moving forward.