Do you ever do this? Do you ever decide if you’re “allowed” to feel tired or yucky based on if your brain can come up with a “reason” you “should” feel yucky? Or give yourself a hard time, or at least feel annoyed, if you feel crappy when there’s “no reason” to feel crappy?
I caught myself doing that yesterday morning and as I was telling a friend about it, I noticed that my brain (and its inner committee 😊) likes to divide things into three distinct pods based on how I’m feeling and the circumstances for each:
- I wake up and feel good – (Brain’s interpretation: “Yay, that feels good, so all is well!”)
- I wake up and feel yucky – but I can come up with a reason why I feel yucky like I went to bed way too late, or I’m nervous about something, or I worked out too hard, or sat at my computer all day with no exercise, or I’ve been running around like a freak too many days in a row, or I ate stuff that made me feel puffy or bloated or heavy, or I’m detoxing physically or spiritually healing/changing old patterns, or I can feel a cold coming on, etc. etc. (Brain’s interpretation: “Well, I don’t like feeling like this, but I understand it, so all is still okay.”)
- I wake up and feel yucky – but I have “no reason” to feel yucky because I ate things that made my body happy, and I worked out just the right amount for me, and I’m not procrastinating on anything, and all is well with my humans, and there’s nothing specific worrying me, etc. etc. (Brain’s interpretation: “What?? I don’t like this at all. It makes no sense! Why are you feeling funky when nothing’s wrong? Come on, mush doggy! I don’t understand this; it’s not okay!”)
Yeah, I know – pretty hilarious. So yesterday morning, I noticed all three: I felt physically tired and crunched up; I felt annoyed because I hate that feeling; AND I couldn’t find a good reason for why.
And then a simple insight (and gift) popped in: Darcy, you can push against the yucky feeling. Really…if you need to do that it’s okay. And later your energized “I feel good” will come back anyway. Or… you could choose to not push against it as you wait for your “I feel good” to come back. You can be as slow and gentle and kind and undisturbed with it as you are with Chris, Nik, mom, or any other human when they are feeling tired or “off.”
Wow… cool. In that moment I got it that I could say to my beautiful brain, “Hey, thanks for trying to keep me safe by always trying to figure things out. But I don’t need you to do that right now. I promise all is well.” This time around I picked that choice… and it was awesome. I felt my whole “I’m on guard! Wait… what’s wrong?!” thing totally soften and chill out and actually leave. I still felt physically tired and slow for the moment. But along with that I just felt easy. How cool is that?
So, here’s your provocation (and gift): the next time you find yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually “off” even if there’s no good reason to feel that way… stand metaphorically tall and strong, and say kindly but firmly to your beautiful brain and chatty inner committee, “Hey, thank you – but I got this. All is well. You can stand down. We’re just going to go with the flow, roll with it, allow whatever is going on. Because I promise that soon enough, like all things, this too will pass.”
Because I promise… like all things, this too will pass. And it turns out that when we treat ourselves kindly by allowing it – things pass more gracefully and quickly too 😊.
Take kind, loving care of yourself today and this month. And sign up here for next month’s “Self-Love is the Path” class. It’s free, online, and open to everyone! It’s Tuesday, Sept. 6th 7pm EST (after a nice long Labor Day weekend for many of us!) and I would love to have you join me!