Remember: You’re Human

On your journey to happiness, every day isn’t going to feel good. Even when you’ve put in years of work and you’ve been at your absolute best place ever; a day or moment is going to hit where you want to throw your hands up and say, “Come. ON!!!”

I say that because that was me yesterday.

Listen, we’re human and we have emotions and feelings and some times it can just feel like too much. It doesn’t mean we take giant steps backward, it just means we’re alive.

What I can tell you is based on my reaction, and I notice this a lot about myself (you will too during your journey,) I can see my progress.

If this were a few years ago, the smallest of things could have broken me down because inside, I felt broken. I was abused for so long, I was like a battered puppy dog flinching at every situation I was a part of. I was admittedly in a very dark, uncomfortable place and I knew it. So, I did the work.

Now, yesterday, I hate even typing this but…it was a Facebook Memory. GASP They are meant to bring joy, but really they’re the spawn of Satan himself because it’s that very memory that can trigger the emotions within you.

It just so happens that 4 years ago, was what I had expected to be an incredibly positive turning point for myself. I had been out of the relationship abuse about 6 months, I had been doing a lot of work on myself and in my career, the radio station I had a large hand in had its biggest ratings in 18 years! Whoa! Big! Positives! are happening! ….right? Wrong.

I was laid off a month later, along with a few other people in the building. Since then, I’ve been laid off two more times (among other things.)

So, I saw that and I was tweaked.

I’m an incredibly positive person. But every so often there’s a moment like this where it feels like instead of celebrating my success, I’ve been forced to trip and fall over them, to climb my way back up only to have it happen over and over again – it can be defeating.

Here’s my point.

The Healing Process shows in how I dealt with it, compared to how I would have dealt with it a few years ago. Instead of allowing it to take control of my day: curled up in the fetal, crying my eyes out and wallowing over the past all alone in a dark room refusing to speak to others; I instead allowed myself to feel the upset and then…I moved on with my day.

Truth is, we’re all going to have these moments and it is okay to feel sad, frustrated and angry at things that happen. It’s all in how we handle it as these moments come.

Think about one thing that upset you today (I’ll wait as you sort through the possible hundreds on a first day back after the holidays.)

Ask yourself:

How long did it bother you? Will it bother you tomorrow?

Was this something that you could control or change?

Did you allow it to effect your productivity?

Was the anger or frustration guiding you? Or were you able to transform the energy positively?

Example: I was in a horribly abusive relationship, I got out of it depressed and “broken,” I had a panic attack and instead of focusing on the sadness and a pity party, I picked up my pieces and went through multiple stages of healing that all led me to create, Feel This Happy. I took my horrible experience and turned a negative into a positive.

This is a “bigger picture” type of example, but how can you do something similar with even the smallest of frustrations happening in your day?