Easy . . .
Someone posted a link to this article on a board I frequent on Ravelry. It's entitled "Are You Emotionally Overweight?" I believe that self-talk is extremely important, and not just in terms of weight loss. It's important in all areas of our lives. I get the occasional eyeroll when I say, "let's relanguage that, shall we?" but words can hurt. It's up to us to police our own self-talk and shift it to the positive. I do find myself saying things to myself that I would never - ever - say to a friend. That's a pretty big clue that something needs to be relanguaged. I work on it. A lot. The part of the article that touched me the most, however, was the part about "finding your one word." How do you distill all that stuff flying around in your head down to one, comforting word? A word to speak to stop a negative barrage before it can get started. I narrowed it down to two. It was between "breathe," and "easy." Breathe, as in take a breathe; and easy, as in what you say to a skittish animal to get it to calm down.
I've chosen now. I've decided that my one word is "easy." It has meaning for me in many contexts . . . take it easy; easy does it; make it easy on yourself; easy peasy (lemon squeezy). I'm hoping that I will be able to remember to use it. That seems to be the trick for me with any sort of coping mechanism - remembering to use it, or using it in time for it to be able to work. I don't know if I would have been able to head off Friday's PTSD episode had I started my breathing meditation sooner, but any tools I can add to my toolkit and have at my disposal can only benefit me :-) And just because my usual breathing meditation didn't work this time doesn't mean it won't work again. It works pretty much all the time - just not this last time, and I think that was because I might not have started in enough time.
I am always looking for ways to make things easier for myself, because, according to a lot of people in my life, I do too much. All the time too much. At the moment, I have too many African violets again - 61 varieties. I've been waiting on many of them to bloom for the first time to see if they will bloom true to their documented/registered description. They don't always, and when they don't it makes it very easy for me to let them go to their Great Reward. With very rare exceptions, I don't give shelf space to plants I cannot show. I did make some hard choices this morning, however, because space on the shelves is at a premium at the moment and I had to let some things go. In addition, The leaves I put down back in June have sprouted and now I have babies to separate and pot up. I'll eventually have a little more space on the shelf where the domed tray used to be, but the babies will grow into full sized plants eventually . . . You see the problem, yes? :-D
I should be downstairs at my potting bench, potting things. But it's Sunday and I would much rather just relax today - and I would like to get a workout in. Those things are going to take priority, along with laundry and other chores so that I can be ready for the workweek to come.
Other topics flying through my brain this morning . . .
I've chosen now. I've decided that my one word is "easy." It has meaning for me in many contexts . . . take it easy; easy does it; make it easy on yourself; easy peasy (lemon squeezy). I'm hoping that I will be able to remember to use it. That seems to be the trick for me with any sort of coping mechanism - remembering to use it, or using it in time for it to be able to work. I don't know if I would have been able to head off Friday's PTSD episode had I started my breathing meditation sooner, but any tools I can add to my toolkit and have at my disposal can only benefit me :-) And just because my usual breathing meditation didn't work this time doesn't mean it won't work again. It works pretty much all the time - just not this last time, and I think that was because I might not have started in enough time.
I am always looking for ways to make things easier for myself, because, according to a lot of people in my life, I do too much. All the time too much. At the moment, I have too many African violets again - 61 varieties. I've been waiting on many of them to bloom for the first time to see if they will bloom true to their documented/registered description. They don't always, and when they don't it makes it very easy for me to let them go to their Great Reward. With very rare exceptions, I don't give shelf space to plants I cannot show. I did make some hard choices this morning, however, because space on the shelves is at a premium at the moment and I had to let some things go. In addition, The leaves I put down back in June have sprouted and now I have babies to separate and pot up. I'll eventually have a little more space on the shelf where the domed tray used to be, but the babies will grow into full sized plants eventually . . . You see the problem, yes? :-D
I should be downstairs at my potting bench, potting things. But it's Sunday and I would much rather just relax today - and I would like to get a workout in. Those things are going to take priority, along with laundry and other chores so that I can be ready for the workweek to come.
Other topics flying through my brain this morning . . .
- I think I've just gotten hooked into the Benedict Cumberbatch/BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. No clue what season I'm on on PBS, but I think I'm going to have to get the first season(s) from Netflix and watch them all. It's really well done.
- Almost no knitting got done on vacation. Seriously. But I'm nearly halfway down the calf on the second sock of the Elementary Watson Socks - they are #15 on the WIPs list. I did not carry the pattern down the foot on these. (Seems like Sherlock and his sidekick are everywhere these days, doesn't it? ;-D)
- I'm breathing really well now that my asthma meds are at a better level for me. (Yay!)
- I went back to Weight Watchers last week.
Comments