Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness leads to Self-compassion
...and awareness of others leads to compassion for them.
There is no such thing as a bad emotion. We have positive and negative emotions but that does not mean good or bad. Think of it more like science - you have a baseline (neutral) and you have positive (like protons) that brings you above your baseline and negative (like electrons) that bring you below your baseline. They are all beneficial and they are all part of being a normal human being. How we respond to those emotions is good or bad.
Connecting the dots...
Here Dr. Sood talks about the correlation between stress and a wandering mind. He does reference his book as published by the Mayo Clinic, but specifically discusses the importance of stress and a wandering mind.
Dr. Sood is a world-leading expert in resilience and stress management and the creator of the Mayo Clinic Resilient Mind program. He is also a former professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. Dr. Sood has authored multiple books, including “The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living” and “The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness.” His innovative approach to resilience has been validated by more than a dozen clinical trials and positively impacts tens of thousands of people every year. See this website for more information.
What are the signs that your current mental or emotional health is suffering? There may be signs or symptoms in four domains: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, or physical. Look to the left for specific ideas.
My brain and heart divorced
my brain and heart
divorced
a decade ago
over who was
to blame about
how big of a mess
I have become
eventually,
they couldn’t be
in the same room
with each other
now my head and heart
share custody of me
I stay with my brain
during the week
and my heart
gets me on weekends
they never speak to one another
– instead, they give me
the same note to pass
to each other every week
and their notes they
send to one another always
says the same thing:
“This is all your fault’
on Sundays
my heart complains
about how my
head has let me down
in the past
and on Wednesday
my head lists all
of the times my
heart has screwed
things up for me
in the future
they blame each
other for the
state of my life
there’s been a lot
of yelling – and crying
SO,
lately, I’ve been
spending a lot of
time with my gut
who serves as my
unofficial therapist
most nights, I sneak out of the
window in my ribcage
and slide down my spine
and collapse on my
gut’s plush leather chair
that’s always open for me
~ and just sit sit sit sit
until the sun comes up
last evening,
my gut asked me
if was having a hard
time being caught
between my heart
and my head
I nodded
I said didn’t know
if could live with
either of them anymore
“my heart is always sad about
something that happened yesterday
while my head is always worried
about something that may happen tomorrow,"
I lamented
my gut squeezed my hand
"I just can’t live with
my mistakes of the past
or my anxiety about the future,"
I sighed
my gut smiled and said:
"in that case,
you should
go stay with your
lungs for a while,’
by John Roedel
I was confused
– the look on my face gave it away
“if you are exhausted about
your heart’s obsession with
the fixed past and your mind’s focus
on the uncertain future
your lungs are the perfect place for you
there is no yesterday in your lungs
there is no tomorrow there either
there is only now
there is only inhale
there is only exhale
there is only this moment
there is only breath
and in that breath
you can rest while your
heart and head work
their relationship out."
this morning,
while my brain
was busy reading
tea leaves
and while my
heart was staring
at old photographs
I packed a little
bag and walked
to the door of
my lungs
before I could even knock
she opened the door
with a smile and as
a gust of air embraced me
she said
“what took you so long?’
by John Roedel
John Roedel is a comedian and poet that I've come across in my time scrolling through Facebook. He has a website and a Facebook page and I've found many more of his writings to be inspiring. Feel free to check him out here: https://www.johnroedel.com/