How to Stay Positive During a Move

Stressed About Moving? Re-frame Your Thinking

If you're moving, you have my simultaneous congratulations and sympathies. Despite the excitement of starting fresh in a new home, the process of getting all of your stuff into that new home can be soul-crushingly difficult. The boxes. The tape. The give-away pile. The clothes. The books. The knick-knacks.

If you're like me, during a move you find yourself launching into a spiral of toxic, negative thinking. In this gallery, I'm offering up 5 of the most common such gems, each with their own rescue that falls into the category of what my sister (a social worker) calls a "positive re-frame."

Do you recognize the negative self-talk? Together we'll articulate those same thoughts in positive language that will get you back at the boxes in no time--maybe even with a smile on your face.

Click for the first positive re-frame.

Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet’s Health editor and the co-author of the Fresh Living blog.

Toxic Thought #2: "We Have Too Much Junk"

Why do we keep every birthday card, every little gift, every random purchase? We are pathetic pack rats.

*Positive Re-Frame*: How lucky we are--these objects are artifacts of a life where friends and family send cards and gifts, we have the ability to buy things that we enjoy, and we care enough about these things to have kept them until now. If we no longer need some objects that we once thought were important, we can give them away to someone who does. Even if we put old cards into the recycle bin, we are still keeping all of the love and thoughtfulness that went into them in the first place. This move is a chance to remember, a chance to give, and a chance to hold onto only that which is truly important.