Friendly Reminders...

 

I've had a few things on my mind lately. This morning, I sent a text to my brother, saying, "I need to have you consistently reminding me that I can do this."  You see, I frequently preach my "everything is figureoutable" mantra, but sometimes, the thing itself feels UNfigureoutable.  Sometimes, I bury myself in the what-ifs of the thing itself.  

My mind has been bogged down with worries about various situations, how those situations are going to affect me, and plenty of self-doubt (hence the note to my brother). Anxiety filled days, chore-filled evenings, sleepless nights. 

Another thing I said to my brother: "I tend to require situations to be in control in order for me to be OK. This situation is not, and I am not OK." As I've preached many times before to many others, most life situations cannot be controlled, and we must let go, let life happen, and learn to love what happens, in order to feel OK.


I do like to have a plan.  I certainly can become very attached to a plan.  In this case, the plans were good, and they are working.  Now, it seems like the good, working plans might not work for much longer, and I'm freaking out. It's probably a great time to remind myself that plans can change, and that there's often an equally good, or even better plan ahead.  

Often, I find that the lessons I'm teaching to our little ones at the elementary school are eerily close to the lessons I need to be learning in my own life. This week, I've been discussing the concept of "personal strength" to our third graders.  

I'm consistently impressed by our students' insights: 

💖 "Personal strength means that when someone is being really mean to you, you don't take it seriously, you let it roll off, and don't let it ruin your day." 

💖"Personal strength doesn't mean your body's strength, it means your emotional strength."

💖"Personal strength means doing things that are scary, being brave."

From our lessons together, the kids and I conclude that personal strength means that you need to come from a place of self love to develop the courage and effective coping skills that enable you to stand up for yourself, either in doing what you know is right, or in leading yourself to a positive solution to your problem. 

When I tell you that my lessons often come eerily close to the lessons I need to learn in my own life, I'm not kidding.  The picture below shows a line from a book that I read this week:  "Always remember, if something's not right, we can work on fixing it together."  

Friendly reminders:

💖 Relax, nothing is under control.

💖 The best plan is a plan that can be changed.

💖 Everything is figureoutable.

 

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