These last 2 weeks in my life has been incredibly filled with mental noise and not much working well. Lots of potential for yelling and cussing out loud. And some “what the hell”.
If you follow the Metaphysical world, it would have taken you to the fact that Mercury was in Retrograde and not much was supposed to go right. Since I am normally positive and coach what is possible, I can easily put myself in the column of “not me”, thinking I am the exception to the rules of OMG time.
The happenings:
- My wireless keyboard died.
- I lost all of my keys Friday night and only got a new car key today – $275.00 for the key (yay computers and chips in the keys) – I’ve never lost keys before and I have a rhythm of what I do with my keys when I come home so I spent 4+ days wandering around my home and yard looking for the keys – my daughter even came over to help look for them – they are gone.
- Went to a festival and stayed two nights in a not so great hotel and by Sunday morning I had 300 – yes you read that right – 300 bed bug bites – and many many many days of incredible itching. The hotel is not pleased with me and the push I am putting on them to clean up their act.
- Setting up the best timing for client interactions has been like herding cats – frustrating and irritating for me and for them.
- Mice have invaded my home and tore up the Christmas paper in my extra room. I mean tore it up.
- I have a terrific shelf in my pantry where I store spices and cooking oils. On the 3rd shelf up the largest plastic container of cooking oil leaked onto EVERYTHING below and spread and spread and spread. It cleans up like 200 gallons of hopeless mess.
- An insurance issue reared it’s ugly head which should have been impossible, but was not – and it is still not resolved.
- My free standing freezer is failing and throwing off heat instead of cold.
- And some more things.
However, I do not live in Florida and did not lose everything and become terrified for hours at a time thinking that my time had come to die.
Because I’ve learned how to be grateful – sometimes a very hard place to get to – I am able, even with all these things going wrong for me, to turn on electric lights and smile; enjoy my shower in clean water; put on dry clothes that fit; cook the food I love and saver the flavors.
Let’s not forget the fires on the West Coast. The devastation of Puerto Rico. The flooding in Pakistan. The stock market scaring the poop out of the world.
Somewhere in me, I found gratitude.
I know that people care about me and if I called them, they would come.
And you have that too.
The world is a mess. It has been messier – WWI, Bubonic plague, starvation.
Humans create lots of mess. We also create amazing ways to fix the mess.
I remember when my brother was killed and laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery. His West Point classmates created a wave of protection for our sorrow. And when you think you will never recover, you do.
Anxiety is not pleasant, but it can be curative. It can tell us when something is not working – how very out of sync we are with what is most important to us because we angry and in reaction to the world.
“So Natalie, why are you sharing all of this with us?”
My life is magical and rewarding and utterly filled with crap also.
I choose now what is most important to me, but I had to get back to the basic principles of what works:
- Breathing
- Stopping the 24/7 reaction and being right
- Counting my blessings
- Using affirmations
- Allowing myself the grace to be utterly mad and then not so mad and then pretty annoyed at me for spending so much time being annoyed and in reaction
No one is an exception to reaction. No one. Not you. Not anyone. So when in reaction and righteous judgment, you can begin to recover.
When someone is being consumed by fire, they ask you to stop, drop and roll until the fire is out.
It is the same with righteous reaction, stop, breath and shift to what is most important to you..
You have the right to be angry. You also have the right to be well; happy; giggly; safe; supported; calm; pleased; and you have the right to feel that now.
To your wellness and success,
P.S. NMA, that’s me and my terrific team, have put together some Wooza short one hour leadership, communication and behavioral performance “on screen” content. Email me and lets get you and your team (or entire organization) on track and feeling good about their talents and strengths. We all DESERVE to feel confident and competent.