I asked one of my dear friend’s at work what she felt I should blog about today (what does the universe need right now?), and she emphatically said that I should use this video of our dog, Waffles.
Within moments, Wonder Woman (aka Ashley Jost, who is my right-hand blog professional), quickly made it happen to the tune of this great little clip from the one and only Taylor Swift. I tried to not like Taylor a few years back, but when her songs come on I find myself catching the vibe in a heartbeat. She’s fun and her spirit is contagious. The music lyrics here in “Shake it off” are right on point.
We all know the truth is that with this situation and with many others, we can’t simply “shake it off” completely, but we can identify the weights that bear us down and work to take a few off, replacing them with better energy and more positive or useful thinking. Taking a hard look at what is keeping us up at night, or causing that sick feeling in our stomach, is good for the heart and soul. One of the Twitter feeds I read last night, (@brokeymcpoverty) shared some of the most helpful content I have ever seen. It was an ask that went something like this, “To help make things a little easier – and noting that therapy is a luxury – ask some who are seeing a therapist (or virtually seeing) to spread the wealth and share their best tips.” Here are a couple that I felt were pure gold:
- “Do you have to sink or swim? What if you just float?” (My fav!)
- “Capture mood logs” (Journaling is a proven good idea to help process thoughts and experiences.)
- “Lean into being uncomfortable. Fighting it is like fighting a wave in the ocean, you’ll end up exhausted and possibly feel worse.”
- “Give equal space to the thought of ‘what if it all works out?'”
- “Recognize that the whole world is grieving. You can’t expect to be the most productive you’ve ever been just because you have more free time. Everything about your life has drastically changed, be easy on yourself.”
So much good here and such a marvelous tie in to “shake it off.”
I know like me, many of you are doing your best to pray, to “call in” the positive energy and to advance our thinking so that we can come up with better approaches and solutions to dealing with this change. We are all in this together, so by all means, please share any wisdom you may find useful with other readers.
Depending on where you read this it may look like there are only a few readers, there are actually quite a few. In February there were 3,014 people reached through the blog with 550 engaging in some way. My goal with each post is for it to impact one person, and sometimes that person may only be myself, but still I forge ahead knowing this is what God has called me to do.
I share that with the ask that you share your thoughts early and often so that we can collectively share insights that can together shift our world to the positive. So much light to share and we need everyone on board!
So much love for you all!