This week was an incredible mishmash of emotion.
My sister had her first child last weekend, welcoming another August baby to the family. Good news.
Some changes in the news industry have created a lot of uncertainty and a lot of frustration for many journalists, myself included. Not so good news.
On Thursday, I was involved in covering a high speed vehicle chase that killed a local sheriff deputy. Terrible news.
A number of other things were getting under my skinned too, like a canceled meeting I'd spent weeks preparing for, the house remaining in disarray as we work on outdoor projects this summer instead of indoor renovations. Everything was on my nerves this past week, everything.
I'm not sure I realized how stressed and wound up I was until Thursday night when I was trying to make mac and cheese for dinner. Minimal nutritional value but it was one of those nights.
I burned myself dumping the pasta into the strainer, then dropped the entire pot on the kitchen floor while trying to pour the strained pasta back into the pot.
You guys, I had a complete meltdown. There was crying, yelling, slamming things and me acting like a 5-year-old.
Seriously, the pasta was no great loss. I didn't even really want it for dinner, but it was the available food that took the least amount of work.
M cleaned up my mess and salvaged my dinner while I pulled myself together.
There was no single point that lead to my meltdown last night, but the culmination of continued stressors throughout the week, lack of sleep and frustration on a lot of fronts.
Truly, nothing in my life is terrible. I'm an aunt, no one I know personally was hurt in any incident this week, I have house and home.
And it's always that realization that brings me back to center. Sometimes slowly and sometimes crying and childish antics are involved, but all times, finding my center is what keeps my world together.
I've said this before, but I'm not an especially calm or relaxed person. All my energy, ideas, motivation, feistiness, whatever you want to call it, goes into forward motion, positive change. But when it hits walls, or stumbling blocks, sometimes it all bubbles up into not to positive behavior, like me snapping at people for no real reason or crying over spilled pasta.
In those moments, it might take me hours or a few days to pull myself back to center again, but I always get back there.
By Friday, I was feeling better, my resolve had kicked in and I was feeling less like giving up on certain projects and more like digging in and making things awesome.
And for every bad day, a pep talk from Kid President is the perfect remedy. M pulled that out for me when I particularly grumpy early in the week.
My sister had her first child last weekend, welcoming another August baby to the family. Good news.
Some changes in the news industry have created a lot of uncertainty and a lot of frustration for many journalists, myself included. Not so good news.
On Thursday, I was involved in covering a high speed vehicle chase that killed a local sheriff deputy. Terrible news.
A number of other things were getting under my skinned too, like a canceled meeting I'd spent weeks preparing for, the house remaining in disarray as we work on outdoor projects this summer instead of indoor renovations. Everything was on my nerves this past week, everything.
I'm not sure I realized how stressed and wound up I was until Thursday night when I was trying to make mac and cheese for dinner. Minimal nutritional value but it was one of those nights.
I burned myself dumping the pasta into the strainer, then dropped the entire pot on the kitchen floor while trying to pour the strained pasta back into the pot.
You guys, I had a complete meltdown. There was crying, yelling, slamming things and me acting like a 5-year-old.
Seriously, the pasta was no great loss. I didn't even really want it for dinner, but it was the available food that took the least amount of work.
M cleaned up my mess and salvaged my dinner while I pulled myself together.
There was no single point that lead to my meltdown last night, but the culmination of continued stressors throughout the week, lack of sleep and frustration on a lot of fronts.
Truly, nothing in my life is terrible. I'm an aunt, no one I know personally was hurt in any incident this week, I have house and home.
And it's always that realization that brings me back to center. Sometimes slowly and sometimes crying and childish antics are involved, but all times, finding my center is what keeps my world together.
I've said this before, but I'm not an especially calm or relaxed person. All my energy, ideas, motivation, feistiness, whatever you want to call it, goes into forward motion, positive change. But when it hits walls, or stumbling blocks, sometimes it all bubbles up into not to positive behavior, like me snapping at people for no real reason or crying over spilled pasta.
In those moments, it might take me hours or a few days to pull myself back to center again, but I always get back there.
By Friday, I was feeling better, my resolve had kicked in and I was feeling less like giving up on certain projects and more like digging in and making things awesome.
And for every bad day, a pep talk from Kid President is the perfect remedy. M pulled that out for me when I particularly grumpy early in the week.
So what's a girl to do when everything feels like it's falling apart all around you (even if it's really not)?
Tips on Finding Your Center
+ Shake it out. Go for a walk, a run, dance like a lunatic in the living room, whatever suits you to give that negative energy a place to go.
+ Breathe. Long, deep breaths. Focus on it. I never used to understand that focus on your breathing thing, but when I'm really worked up about something, it helps.
+ Give yourself some time. If you feel all off kilter, give yourself the time to talk it out, think it out, dance it out, cry it out, whatever. When your world feels cattywompus, you can't expect to have it all figured out in five minutes. Don't beat yourself up for feeling upset, it only makes things worse and then you'll cry over spilled pasta.
+ Focus. What is it that you're upset about? What is the core issue? Figuring out the problem helps come up with solutions.
+ Decide. Is it something you can fix? Do you want to fix it? Do you want to dig in and make things better? Then do it! if it's one of those battles you just can't win no matter how hard you try, it might be time to let it go. The sooner you sort that out, the faster you can get back to positive, forward motion.
Clearly I'm no master at this, given my pasta meltdown the other night, but in my heart of hearts, I know I'm at my best when I take it all back to center, and folks, the center must hold.
The world can go on with out me for sure, but that's no excuse for me not to give my passions my best effort.
So, that was a lot of rambling that was as much for me as it was for you lovely readers.
While I'm over here sorting through a lot of uncertainty and getting it together, tell me, what do you do when things get wonky and your center must hold?
+ Breathe. Long, deep breaths. Focus on it. I never used to understand that focus on your breathing thing, but when I'm really worked up about something, it helps.
+ Give yourself some time. If you feel all off kilter, give yourself the time to talk it out, think it out, dance it out, cry it out, whatever. When your world feels cattywompus, you can't expect to have it all figured out in five minutes. Don't beat yourself up for feeling upset, it only makes things worse and then you'll cry over spilled pasta.
+ Focus. What is it that you're upset about? What is the core issue? Figuring out the problem helps come up with solutions.
+ Decide. Is it something you can fix? Do you want to fix it? Do you want to dig in and make things better? Then do it! if it's one of those battles you just can't win no matter how hard you try, it might be time to let it go. The sooner you sort that out, the faster you can get back to positive, forward motion.
Clearly I'm no master at this, given my pasta meltdown the other night, but in my heart of hearts, I know I'm at my best when I take it all back to center, and folks, the center must hold.
The world can go on with out me for sure, but that's no excuse for me not to give my passions my best effort.
So, that was a lot of rambling that was as much for me as it was for you lovely readers.
While I'm over here sorting through a lot of uncertainty and getting it together, tell me, what do you do when things get wonky and your center must hold?
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