Hey,

Welcome to the Life Notes Newsletter - a newsletter filled with actionable notes on life.

Here's...

🍃 Something to think on in your week: How can you choose empowering (or neutral) reasons for your challenges?

✨ A note to support your thinking:

When you don’t reframe a challenging incident, every time you think of it you continue to view and experience it as your initial reaction.

When we experience hardship, we make it mean something about who we are. We’re meaning-making creatures. We look at whatever happened and we ask: What does this mean about who I am? What does this say about me?

When a friend told you that you were an awful painter, you might have made that mean that you aren’t a creative person. When your friend reacted poorly after you raised an issue, you may have made that mean that raising issues does more harm than good, which is why it’s important to reframe challenging experiences in a light that serves you (or is simply neutral and says nothing about who you are or what you’re capable of).

While the facts about your experience remain unchanged, the story you tell yourself about your experience is malleable. You choose the filter through which you remember your story. You choose what gets emphasised, you can choose what your story says about you and you can choose how it’s remembered each time you recall it.

💃 Action steps to consider:

• Think back to a difficult event in your life (this shouldn’t be something catastrophic, extraordinary or something that most people would consider traumatic - please always speak to a mental health professional before revisiting trauma)

Ask yourself:

• What are some different ways someone else might interpret this event?
• Look at this event through the eyes of the kindest and most loving people you know. How might they interpret this event?

☀️ Extra things just for you

• An interesting article

• **The book I’m reading right now** (This book is about growth through self-acceptance but with a strong tennis focus)

• A creator I love

• **The app I’m revisiting** (We’re on a no spend month, she’s back and I’ve fallen back in love)

Appreciate you,

Michelle

Psst - This newsletter has been gone for a while. It’s back! Keep an eye out for a regular fortnightly Life Notes Newsletter.

Psst - Have you...

☀️ Followed me on instagram for in-between content?

☀️ **Downloaded Intention for iOS** for simple, actionable self-care and mindset exercises to integrate into your daily routine?

☀️ Bought a planning product from Life Map Collective? "I was feeling a little overwhelmed about starting and The Life Map Daily Audio Guide helped so much. I feel like I’m getting the best of all Muchelle’s content from YouTube in one purchase."