It’s 3 am. Jack just woke up a bit a go; now I am wide awake. My mind is going on lots of tangents now that I woke up on how to handle some things that are on my mind for work, as well as thinking about some projects that we have been dreaming up. I usually sleep great, so when I have these moments I try to pay attention.
What is agitating me? How can I best deal with it? What is my end of the equation in it? How can I feel better? It is not foreign for most people to have periods were they feel agitated or frustrated by an event in their life, or a circumstance that they are trying to figure out how best to navigate. This is part of a growth curve, a learning opportunity.
I used to think, “Ahhh awareness and mindfulness means all feel-good feelings and peace.” I now realize that although-yes, there are periods were you feel settled; there is also periods of agitation/or turbulence (major or minor) that you can use your self-awareness to help you much more gracefully through the situation. In the past, this would have been where I would have practiced avoidance strategies. *running away from it, pretending it doesn’t matter, drinking, certainly NOT looking at myself and my role in it and many others.
So now…what do you do with these situations that get under our skin?
1) recognize it 2) have some conscious thought on how to handle the experience. Note what you are feeling in your body and be open to feeling your way through it (we want to FEEL GOOD) 3). Time for change and maybe the change is a major one and maybe its a few small tweaks….change is FIRST for you internally and THEN change occurs in our external environment.
The key here is that periods of agitation or frustration can be hugely helpful to help you create change….but its going to be up to you do create it…otherwise we are going to keep living in this space of frustration and what was an experience now because a life. poor sleep. or worse. Ugh.
So use your internal guidance to make change, and get back to good sleep, peace, and the next new experiences you are calling forth.