Make time to be compassionate to yourself
Feeling not so yourself these days?
Make time for compassion.
I’m not sure about you, but over the past year or so, I’ve often found my mood swinging wildly from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes.
Meeting daily, weekly and monthly goals that used to psyche me up are now just an ehhhh, whatever achievement.
Positive moments in my life don’t feel quite as positive as they used to.
It’s like I’ve placed a wet blanket over my endorphins and that’s thrown an unweildy monkey wrench in the positive mindset machinery.
It’s gotten to the point that I’m frustrated with my frustration.
As a result, I began to challenge these ho-hum thoughts.
Why am I feeling so off all the time?
Why are the highs not as high right now?
How can I course correct and get back on track?
Well, the moment I began to challenge my recent melancholy disposition, I realized that there is a very good - and obvious - explanation for all of this:
Oh yeah, lest I forget, there’s still a fucking pandemic raging in this country with people dying all over the place, the community that I serve has been ravaged and are still trying to figure their shit out, my city is still fucked up with a bunch of businesses still closed, our government is...working out some things, and I’m alone most of the time talking to my money tree…
...and these issues have been on an endless loop for almost a year.
Ah, right.
Once I reminded myself that the world is still not right, I decided to offer myself an emotional tourniquet:
Compassion
Eventually, as I became more aware of these mood changes, I changed the conversation in my head from one of anger, anxiety, and loneliness to one where I had to remind myself that there is a lot of uncertainty in the air and that it’s okay to be upset.
In that moment, I gave myself the permission to be human and feel all the feelings.
I also cut myself some slack and stopped judging myself for how high the level of frustration has gotten.
And I told myself that I will have this very conversation with myself every single time the anger and loneliness demons bubble up to the surface.
Am I 100% back to feeling more grounded and present every single time, instantly?
I’d be lying if I said yes.
But, I can say that those brief, yet powerful, moments of compassion help mitigate the slide into the dumpster fire of negative emotions, cutting these episodes much shorter in length than before.
There’s a lot of challenges we’re all still facing based on the world at large, and we’re all working hard to figure out how to do our things despite those challenges.
In moments where you might feel compelled to lose it, take a moment to pause, breathe, and treat yourself in the same way that you would a friend who is having an emotional down spiral before your very eyes.
Kill em with compassion.
Understand that the way things are now will change, because change is inevitable, regardless of a pandemic. But until then, be as present as possible and focus on the aspects of your life that you can control.
It’s all you can do.
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