A new day

Shake it off Chief......well, I really can't. Firstly, Nits don't 'shake off' you have to physically remove them and secondly I'm dedicated to a steril, Nit free home...and that is all I'm going to say about the subject.

In the meantime I've decided to take my mind of the situation by doing a little 'book of quotes diving'. That is where I open my $2 book from the cheap-o bookstore and find a quote that resonates....here it THE ONE....

"Man is a social animal." SENECA

This quote is so true for me. Recently I've been grumpy a bit and what I started to do was isolate myself AND do nothing in my isolation and then all of the demons began to talk to me, "you're not doing all that you should be", "you have tons of books to read why aren't you reading them", "you should be cleaning", "there are library books that are overdue"....and so on and so forth. At some point I recognized this funk and decided to see if I could do something about it. So, I got the energy to drive myself to Starbucks for coffee. I didn't even really get out of my jammies (I was in sweats all day). Just the thought of making that transition from my home started to perk me up. Although I wasn't actively interacting with the people at Starbucks, the fact that they were there gave me energy. I decided to write down what I learned from my little 'social experiment' and here is what I wrote

1) It was easier to get out than I thought

2) The thought of warm coffee warming my hands made me feel better (eventhough I hadn't gotten a cup yet)

3) The vision of me sitting with coffee and writing my thoughts brought me peace

4) The weather was not the only factor, but the combination of weather and the 'no fun tasks' I had to do was getting to me.

5) Eventhough this week I needed to continue with the no fun tasks, next week I am going to identify the no fun tasks and see if I can bag, better or barter them (one of my new life coach tools).

I also decided to come up with a list of things to do in the event of a "grump attack" and use it as a cheat sheet for getting out of the grump

1) Take time to comfort myself

2) Move myself to environment that gives me energy (coffee shop)

3) Contact a friend and meet her/him

4) Do something that feels comforting (read a book, contact a friend, go to a movie

5) Do small things that make me feel proud (connect with someone, write)

6) Play music

What I've been learning lately as a life coach is that just the act of acknowledging emotions and feelings helps to eradicate the situation more quickly and effectively rather than ignoring it. It is important to identify the event, the thoughts about the event, the feelings associated with the thoughts,...and then the work comes in where you then need to decide what emotion you'd rather have and make a strategy to get there. Sometimes you can make a big shift from say complacency to joy, but other times it might be from despair to indifference (which isn't as wonderful as the joy feeling but better than despair). We all have the power to be happy, sometimes it might mean a 'chipping away' at thoughts and feelings, while other times it is a euphoric shift that sets you off into positive orbit. Both are great because both mean you are making choices to be happy....and that is what I'm all about right now!

Now, I do have to say, sometimes when I am grumpy, I just want to be grumpy and revel in my grump, and that is ok as long as I acknowledge that I am doing it and set a limit to how long I'll allow it to go on! I don't know if my fellow life coaches would agree, but for now, that is my story and I'm sticking with it until proven otherwise!