The remarkable thing about our thoughts are how adjustable they are. We are able to filter out difficulties and prioritize them for severity. Not so long ago, you may have thought your biggest issue of the morning was being low on orange juice, until you went out to your car and found a tire was flat. You immediately changed course and the need to get the tire fixed became more important than remembering to buy juice.
If you think back four weeks, can you recall what the biggest issue in your life was? Most days, our concerns revolve around using time wisely and moving ourselves and others to locations to complete those tasks. We often rush due to lack of time or attempting to do more things than fit in a time slot. We consider them demands on our lives. We don’t always have negative feelings about dashing back and forth, until we do, but even that dissolves in time when we get to the next thing we have to finish.
And then the world paused, looked around and stopped. Something big came along to throw us off our usual merry-go-round. When we tried to get up quickly, we realized we were actually hurt. We were forced to sit still. But we aren’t very good at remaining in place. We were used to running around; we were getting good at it too. Loaded up our lives, filled every second with something important to do, lived a big life, and enjoyed some of it. There’s a feeling of accomplishment in being able to Do. It. All.
Now, it’s a little like going through detox at rapid speed and without support. We have the shakes. We added the jitters when the economy became a roller coaster. It makes one sick just to watch. We have amusement park illness. We wait in line for food and it’s rarely what we really want to eat now. We sit at uncomfortable picnic tables suspiciously eyeing those around us and wonder what they are hiding. The fun house is where we live. Things are distorted. The gift shop is closed so there are no adorable stuffed animals to buy and hug. Even the kiddie rides are avoided to protect our families. The music that is playing on the loudspeaker sounds a lot like “What are we going to do” and has a scary tune.
Now it’s really time to stop. Those thoughts are just your danger mouse brain telling you standard beware messages. But your life is not completely on fire. Take stock of today. Did you eat? Do you have family and friends you can touch, even virtually? Sit down somewhere comfortable. Are you still healthy? That’s big. Yes, you have difficulties. Yes, they may have changed from those you were thinking about a month ago. Yes, there are others helping to solve some of our shared difficulties. That is good. Take a little comfort in the fact that you have navigated through troubled waters before. You didn’t drown. You built a boat or swam or even dog-paddled a little. You must change your thoughts to start to have room to make better thoughts. You can absolutely dump all those horrible thoughts onto a piece of paper and file it elsewhere for now. Don’t get rid of it. You may want to see how far you will move from today in the future. Then you can compare your future difficulties against these. They may not compare and that would be fantastic, wouldn’t it?
