emotions

You Have Permission to Feel Good 150 150 admin

You Have Permission to Feel Good

Boy…was it great when I listened to the commentary on The Secret DVD by Rhonda Byrne.  I can still remember her saying, “Do what you must do to feel good“.  So…at that moment I started putting everything through a feel good filter.

Did watching this television show make me feel good?  No

Did playing a video game make me feel good?  Yes for very brief moments, and it was like temporary ego highs.  There was no momentum, because I needed to get another high to keep it going

Did listening to music make me feel good? It depended on what I listened to.  If the song was angry, I tended to become angry.  If it was upbeat and positive that’s when I felt good.

Did having a clean house make me feel good? Yes

Did answering bill collectors calls make me feel good?  No

Did meditation make me feel good? Yes

Did listening to family make me feel good? No

Did mooching off the government with student loans make me feel good? No

Did helping someone else or encouraging someone else or saying thank you to someone else make me feel good?  Yes, yes, and…yes.

Eventually I started to do only things that made me feel good, and I became very clear as to what made me feel good and what didn’t.

I then tried to amplify what was making me feel good.  This, along with other messages in the movie The Secret, helped me get a grasp on my emotions.

You have permission to feel good.  Take a day and put things and people in your life through the feel good filter.

Does _________ make you feel good?  If not, find a way to drop it from your life.

I feel like “blah” 150 150 admin

I feel like “blah”

I remember telling my 12-step program sponsor one day (who I talked to every day at 6:30 AM) that I was feeling apathetic. It was like this “blah” feeling about life. Things were going well, pretty much all around the board, but I was feeling very empty and disinterested. She said something that was a shift in how I view being apathetic.

Up until that point I thought apathy was the absence of feelings. Even the definition lends itself to that way of thinking.

The dictionary defines apathy as lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.

But she told me, “maybe you’re feeling and thinking so much that you’re overwhelmed”.

That was actually an answer that felt very right! Viola! It was like I overloaded the system mentally and emotionally. I remember I had a lot going on at that time as well. Good things, but just many responsibilities and moving parts to pay attention to.

If that “blah” feeling was an absence of feelings, like I initially thought, then that would have actually been a great thing. It’s like a meditative state. Like 0. You’re in an open state for things to come through you, and for you to be the watcher, watching them flow through you.

Have you been feeling “blah” about life? Maybe it’s just overwhelm. Try some meditation (turning your mind off for a bit). I’m not saying that apathy = overwhelm…I am saying that it’s another perspective, another lens to look through.

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