The Antidote to Constant Busyness & Numbing

I’ll tell ya right now, this isn’t going to be popular and many are going to disagree- but it has to be said.

It’s two things actually and they are kind of separate and also very related.

I’m not really one for sticking with strategies to keep you reading so I’m going to share these things right off the bat.

1. Racing around your life, busyness and high-stress environments are dangerous, unhealthy and will likely kill you or cause emotional and physical problems for you and your family.
2. Watching emotional Netflix series and crying has become the new way to avoid your own trauma. 

Most of the time, when I talk about these things in high-level professional groups, in person to my friends, or live on social media video people respond with something like:

If I don’t do the things, they won’t get done.

I’m the only one who can do the things.

Society rewards high stress and busyness.

I just need to unwind and chill from all of my stress so I’m binge-watching and crying.

This is a cycle.  Hear me out…

What if you took some quiet time to look at your own life and experiences, deeply felt your emotions and had a good cry, journaled and processed your emotions?

I don’t mean that you need to go on a week-long vacation to get this alone time.  It can be just a few moments each day locked in the bathroom, early morning journaling, a yoga class then a quiet walk outside to your car,  speaking into your notes app in your quiet car, or anything similar that brings your attention directly to a traumatic event in your life, a death of a loved one, abuse, tragedy and then allowing any and all emotions to come to the surface- freely and without pushing them down into the pits of your being.

Read that again, please.

It’s funny to me that feeling your own emotions about your own life is something we avoid

Somehow this necessary piece of the human experience gets lots because, well, it’s not fun!

So the cycle continues.

Busy, busy, busy.

Stress, stress, stress.

Numb and purge emotions without dealing with your own stuff.

Repeat.

How many times per week do you speak about how busy you are?  How stressed you are?  How often do you use words to let people know how important your time is and how important the work you do is?

Just notice without judgment.

I was in yoga class yesterday and after class, all I could hear was how stressful work is for one person how busy life is for another, how crazy another’s kids are.

Your words keep the cycle going.

The purpose of my message for you today is to invite you to begin noticing your thoughts, feel the weight of your words before they come out of your mouth and begin to choose some of these healing strategies on a daily basis in your life…not just on Sunday afternoons.

You don’t need to join some healing container, go on a retreat or DO anything at all to feel. 

Feeling is scary.  Crying is overwhelming, especially the hyperventilating kind! 

You CAN allow yourself to feel. 

Bit by bit.  A little at a time. 

Men and women alike!  All humans can do this and BE a person who is aware, who feels, who processes and who lives.

Energy will shift for you.  A light will shine.  Heaviness lessens and you’ll begin to feel in a different way.  Smooth, fresh and free.  It takes some time but I’m living proof that awareness, feeling and BEing is the antidote to most of the above unfavorable stuff in your life.

I like to take it one step further and write random phrases using voice-to-text in my notes app to get the words that are related to the emotions out of my body.

Try it!

Let me know how it goes.

-Annie

(professional photo by Laura Hatcher of Spike Navy Photography in Alexandria, Virginia)