Emotional Euphoria: Side-effects May Vary

 

I'm high! 🩹

I hadn't realized how much of a release it would be to get a vaccine. My emotions are all over the place and I'm writing this to warn you: you too might want to be prepared.

First, when my folks were vaccinated I could feel myself finally exhale: phew! I have so many friends who have lost both of their parents and so to have lost my Mom years ago but still have my Dad and my Bobbie around is such a gift. They've been in Florida this whole time and to have missed so many occasions and not know for sure when it would be safe to be all together was really tough.

Then there have been the other sadnesses that we've just beared. Friends have lost loved ones and I couldn't be with them to mourn in person. Killed me!

Missed a favorite nephew's wedding, lost a job, haven't had a professional haircut, yada, yada- you know! The amazing thing about my missings is that we've ALL had them. No one sailed through this without feeling slightly battered and bruised. At least we all collectively know how beyond bizarre things have been. 

When I received the shot I got in my car to head back home but instead went for a long drive with the windows cracked belting out my new favorite tune 🚗  💨 🎶🎶🎶

This song from Begin Again has been reverberating in my head for days. And I sang it over and over at the top of lungs and am only now getting the irony.

Tell Me If You Wanna Go Home from BEGIN AGAIN... get it?!!

I had re-watched it recently after telling a new 🐝 crush about the music and a particular scene I loved. Mark and Keira's characters walk around the city with a splitter and their own headphones plugged in sharing their playlists 🎶🎧📱🎧🎶 which is a super adorable way to see and hear what lights someone up. 

And that's what we're all about to do again. See everything with new eyes. Get back the freedom to be with others and to be out in the world and begin our lives again.

Not going to lie I had a little upset tummy, which could have been from the shot or just the excitement of now being within sight of seeing my friends again in real life instead of a Zoom screen. To play games with my family. To hug EVERYONE!

Here's what I embraced most during the pause... life is delicate. I mean I keep re-learning this same lesson over and over. Life is short. Things can change in an instant. A couple swipes on your phone can connect you to new possibilities. A vote can restore sanity to a nation. A text checking in on an old friend can make someone feel loved. Delicate. Delicious life!

At some point we will probably need to put back on hard pants, go back into an office, and figure out the path forward. But if you are anything like me, you'll have a moment of gratitude at how lucky we were. How amazing science is. How there is no time to waste in life, even in just enjoying the pause when it's put upon us.

One of my besties has been too busy with a family crisis to do anything but check getting the vaccine off her long to-do-list so she was amused by my happy-high. Some will be: all shot, no chaser. But I reminded her that feeling the buzz of life being lived and taking a moment to breathe is what it's about. Feel it all. 

So, I hope you and those you love are well. I hope you get a shot at/for health. I hope you were scared and sad just enough in this last year to treasure this return to "normal". And I hope when it's time for you to begin again you hug, sing and dance yourself around wherever you go. 

🤗  🤍  😝  🤍  💃🏻  🤍 

[ My current playlist if you want to Begin 2021 with me 🎧🎶]

Special hug to 🤗 Chip

Recharge Yourself

Do you get anxious when you see your phone is at 10%? Of course you do, it's the Pavlovian trigger of our time. Arianna Huffington often talks about how we check in more often on how our cell phone battery is doing during the day than we check in with ourselves.

A few years ago I was reading Finding Your Own North Star, by Martha Beck, and in part of one of the exercises called Climbing Back Into Your Body she asks you to check in with your left big toe. Now this was a startling revelation for me- not that I have toes- but that I probably had not specifically checked in with each one individually since I was a child figuring out which one went to the market.  🐷

I had been really neglecting the vessel in which I live and only paying attention to my body when it's in pain 😖or in pleasure 😉. Of course there was yearly maintenance but as long as I got a ✅ that nothing was wrong it was all good until next year. Even when I would be in workout mode I was mostly going through the motions- let's get this done. Not really connecting with my energy in a way that honored how I wanted to be in the world.

Our bodies are amazing! And we take them for granted because we think if our mind is still awake and functioning enough to get us to our next hour of the day we must be fine. Ridiculous!

Look around... how many of us our numb to how exhausted we are or how we are living on auto-pilot. We do no one any good living on empty.

So what's an exhausted but grateful body to do?
Practice being as connected to our toes as we are to our texts. For me, I'm practicing having quiet time at night before I go to bed so I can calm myself before sleep. Meditating. Stretching when I feel tense. And decluttering my space regularly so I don't have my energy zapped by things that don't spark JOY.

Every time you check your phone: check your mind for clarity... check your shoulders for tension... check your heart for peace... check your gut for direction. Our phones are our tool to be in communication with the world but let's also use that battery-deplete-panic as a reminder that the most important form of communication is with ourselves.

Are You Well?

Last week on Twitter, Canadian phone company Bell sponsored a #BellLetsTalk day to spread the word that it's time to talk about mental health. Glenn Close released a video addressing trying to end the stigma of mental illness last week as well. And that's great and I agree! But I think there are a lot of people that don't have mental illness, so to speak, but are also not well. Let's call it mild depression. And let's talk about it. 

I'll go first... in 2001 I was super stressed at my job and had some relationship issues that were making me sad and I was just out of sorts. And when I shared that I wasn't feeling great I downplayed it so no one really took me seriously because by nature I was a mostly a happy person. I was the one others came to tell there problems to. Only after I got into a car accident did I finally start to take the issue seriously. At first I tried medication which took the edge off but wasn't really what I needed so I got a therapist and did some real work on myself. 

It snapped me out of the funk enough so that even when the next year a bunch of things started going wrong that were out of my control (deaths, breakup, job change) I was able to cope. One big breakthrough I had came during a weekend seminar I took when I noticed that if I was in a good state my shoulders were relaxed and I could breath normally and when my shoulders were off so was I. At that moment I knew I would never let myself get that stressed and exhausted again. So now whenever I catch myself getting super tense or feeling off I can reset myself because I know how to think my way through the anxiety.

Recently a few friends have come to me sharing that they are having a hard time with this issue or that and when I suggest that they either go talk to a doctor or a therapist they resist. 

We don't have to be mentally ill to kick our mental health up a notch. This can mean everything from evaluating our sleep habits, alcohol consumption, stress levels, unhealed childhood trauma... whatever it may be.

Here's the thing, depression sneaks up on you. Depression doesn't mean someone has mental illness, per se, it might just mean they are exhausted, that there is real stresses they need help with, that there might be a nutritional or hormonal issue that might be wearing on their body. Who knows?  

What I do know is that people die if they don't take care of themselves. If depression goes untreated it can lead to physical illness and further mental issues and for a couple people I've known even suicide. It's not something to just ignore. 

So how are you? Really?

If you haven't been your best please at least get some more rest. If that doesn't help tell someone you aren't doing great and see if you can get some advice from a professional. 

Don't live your life numb or sad or not well. People who care about you are busy with their own lives but I assure you they would want you to stop them and ask for help because they want you well. The burden on your friends and family doesn't come from getting you help it comes with dealing with someone they care about who won't get help. 

And if someone is caring and brave enough to share that they are concerned about you please don't brush them off or be embarrassed or ignore their concerns. If they notice you're not you lately take that as a cue to check in with yourself and see if now might be a good time to get a physical and maybe reassess where you are with other life matters. 

We all deserve a good life! That won't always mean sunshine and rainbows but if you're not good-- get help. I want us all to be well so we can partake in the joy of life :)