Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 386 of the wildly successful lifestyle podcast. What’s going on? Thanks for being here and listening and being aware enough that you have a whole lot more control of your life than you were ever told in school or traditional religion or most of the places where we got “educated”.
I mean we should have been having mindfulness classes at every level. We should have been learning about the control we have over our thoughts from the time we were old enough to know the difference. But most of us weren’t. And you know what? That’s ok. Here we are now figuring it all out.
It’s been a rough week. We’ve had wars breaking out in the world that are unfathomable to us here in America. That’s all anyone can talk about. Our friends in Israel are getting beat up pretty bad. It’s very difficult to witness what’s going on but there it is and somehow we have to deal with it.
And oh by the way, we not only have that stuff world wide. We also have our world. Our own personal world that can feel like a war in itself right?
That doesn’t stop because other bad stuff is happening, nope our world keeps right on going too and sometimes it feels like it’s piling on and we tell ourselves it’s too much. I can’t handle it. A little voice inside our head says “I’m not made to deal with all of this.” It’s too hard.
I thought that a couple times this week but as you know I’m always working on catching that little voice inside my head, the one that doubts me, the one that berates me, the one that makes everything my fault because of course it is. You know the one…because you have it too, but I’m getting really good at catching that voice and shutting it down because I’m in control of everything I think, but when bad things happen and they do, that little voice, the one that tells you it’s all your fault, or you’re losing it and you can’t handle it…that little voice has GOT to be shut down and shut down quickly.
This week Eric my husband has been flying so he’s been gone. But just before he was leaving at5 am on Monday morning…our little furbaby our yorkie had been up literally all night struggling to breathe or struggling with something and we didn’t know what. So it’s 1:30 in the morning, we’ve not slept. He has to leave at 5 and we are trying to decide if we should take her to the emergency hospital or wait til her vet opens at 7. So ultimately I wanted to take her somewhere that they know her so we decided to wait. But now Eric is gone and I’m taking our little struggling baby into the vet by myself. She’s 14 by the way and has been so healthy. She looks like she’s 5! But long story short, we have been on an emotional roller coaster all week. Fortunately my little sister came in to be with me from Nashville. But Kenzie was in the emergency hospital for 2 days after spending a full day at her regular dr. I’m making hard decisions and it’s pretty emotional. There have been times where I caught myself saying “I’m not built for this”. I can’t handle this. This is too hard. But I stopped myself every time and said yes you can. At one point I was also handling a difficult situation with work all at the same time and I felt like my head would explode but I also knew that it was all going to work out as it should, all I needed to do was the best I can. If you’re doing the best you can…that is all you have to do.
While Molly is here at night to distract ourselves from worry we are watching a series where in it, one of the actors tells her friend, they are both going through what seems impossible to bear but she tells her friend this is hard and what’s happening is awful but the only way you’re gonna survive is if you keep your shit together.
And by that she means don’t ever let your head get the best of you.
That’s what happens right? We let our heads wrestle in those negative thoughts and it makes every single thing worse. And then we distract ourselves by watching the news or scrolling social media and now our head is in an even worse place as if that was possible.
When we do this though it’s really really easy to believe that we can’t handle things that are hard. At one point we went to visit Kenzie and she’s in her little oxygen chamber because that’s the only way she was breathing and she just wanted me to take her home. She scratched on the little glass window like take me home mom. That’s hard. And I was losing it but I also knew I couldn’t lose it. I had to be strong. Because I am strong. Stronger than I ever give myself credit for. And so are you. You just have to stop telling yourself you’re not.
As I record this. Kenzie is sleeping in her little bed snoring. She’s back home. We aren’t sure for how long but that doesn’t matter. I made it through this week and I will make it through the next time too regardless of what happens. I know that because I’m strong. And so are you. That’s how we are built.
But you aren’t going to find that strength in the gym. That strength starts and finishes in your head.
Shut that little voice down when it starts to tell you you’ve messed up or you’re at fault or you can’t handle it. Yes you can. You do your best and everything else will work out as it should. And be really careful what you spend your time focusing on. That’s become blatantly obvious to me that I can’t just allow a lot of time with the news or social media in general.
That’s my challenge for you this week…to do the best you can and when you feel like things are out of control and everything’s going crazy and you can’t handle it. Remind yourself…to keep your shit together. Because you can, you control that. You do that and everything else will happen as it should. Share this with 3 people who may be having a day. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
