A lot of us are exhausted and overwhelmed. We have been inundated with 24/7 news full of drama and catastrophe and fear-mongering. We may have thought that once the election was over, we’d be ok, but we’re not.
Just like soldiers returning from battle or people going through any kind of crisis who believe that once it’s over, they’ll feel normal again but then they don’t, we are left wondering why we feel like we’re slogging through mud.
The truth is, we go on adrenaline and other stimulating brain chemicals in order to survive. When the crisis is over, of course we are left feeling depleted and drained of all energy.
So what to do? We have to live our lives, work at our jobs, take care of our kids, and interact in our relationships. How do we do that when we just want to crawl into a soft bed and hibernate?
This is where put into practice all the therapeutic interventions we give to our clients.
I go to the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The Courage to change the things I can
And the Wisdom to know the difference.
Everything outside of our own brains is out of our control. All anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, anger, and fear are manufactured by the thoughts that feed them. Basic REBT. Not so easy to implement, though, which is why I go to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to get into the limbic system and move the underlying drivers of our self-defeating thoughts.
It starts, though, with a willingness to take responsibility for creating those above-mentioned emotions. Then we can CHOOSE where to put our attention and energy. When we are truly grounded and present, then we can orient ourselves to our surroundings and acknowledge that we are safe, right here, right now. (for an exercise in how to practice this daily, go here: Container and Orientation).
It seems so simple, doesn’t it, to focus on changing our own thoughts and attitudes and to stop stressing over things we can’t change, like our politicians, the cost of gas, and all the horrible things happening around the world. We can choose to speak out, send money, or volunteer, and then we need to let it go. Simple, right?
So, WHY is it so difficult?
The answer to every WHY about irrational behavior is rooted in the limbic system (Survival Brain), where addiction lives. We become addicted to stimulation and the Survival Brain does not differentiate pleasure from anger or stress. It’s just stimulation and the more our brains adjust to new and higher levels, the more we need. It’s that simple.
Addiction or recovery? Disconnection or Connection?
Use your prefrontal cortex (Enlightened Brain) to choose how you want to be, how you want to live, and then act in harmony with that. The exercises in My Pocket Therapist: 12 Tools for Living in Connection, will help, or you can find your own way, but make that choice. It is the one thing over which you have control!
Be In Light,
Carol
