Full disclosure…. life is hard. Yes, I know no one said it would be easy, but how does that help you in the situation? After a complete meltdown last week, it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and take action.
I love my job and I’m lucky enough to work with great people, but following an extended period of taking on more than I should, I found myself approaching burnout. Lucky for me I’m a fairly practical person. Unlucky for me I’m also quite emotional so a whole bunch of bawling went down, but after the storm was the calm, as always.
Two things happened, first I’m already subscribed to the Biblestudytools.com newsletter and one morning a link to a post on What your complaints actually reveal about you heart came in to my inbox. It really resonated with me. The idea that our negative emotions are likely caused by our perception of the situation. For example, when something happens and you think “why me”- it’s likely that that feeling comes from a place of self entitlement, where deep down we think we are too good for X or better than Y to deserve the outcome. It also covers impatience, resentment, comparing ourselves to others etc.
This on its own was good enough, but then I started listening to Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations podcast- specifically the New Earth series with Eckhart Tolle. This is the type of stuff that can really change your life as far as I’m concerned. I need to get the book- A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose. The podcast is going through the chapters of the book over 10 weeks and I intend to listen to every one!
The main essence is the concept of a persons ego. We all know the ego as being associated with self-centred types, but this talks about it from the perspective of the average person. We all have an ego, that inner self if you want to call it that. It’s basically the manifestation of all your thoughts and emotions. That said, we should aim to be more aware of our ego and try to achieve a higher state of consciousness, where we can see that sometimes our ego is the one standing in the way of happiness and positive change. Our mind throws thoughts at us all day, in a split second we can act on our impulses. This impulsive behaviour is the ego. For example, if someone cuts you off at the light, do you instantly react, start swearing at the other driver, but what really drove this reaction? Chances are something inside is saying “who do they think they are”, “how dare they”- immediately you have placed yourself above that person, their reason for rushing could not possibly be as valid as yours, right? Or, how about that goal weight you want to achieve, our that course you need to study for, or whatever else we set as a goal- we are all familiar with self-sabotage, well the impulsive decision you make to just chill for one more evening, or you’ll quit doing X soon is your ego saying it’s comfortable over here where everything is the same and your plans mean nothing.
The fact I encountered two things with the same message made me sit up and listen and I haven’t even touched on the meat of the information in the podcast. What I do know is that it flipped a switch in me, I’m now questioning my actions and emotions more. It really is helping me gain clarity in stressful situations and just being more cognisant of the drivers of negative emotions means, when confronted with a difficult situation, I understand exactly why I’m upset and know where I need to effect change, or perhaps just change my mindset.
This is the first in my life update series. I’m going to test the frequency of these posts, but I’m thinking to update you as and when I have any epiphanies, haha!
T
Any links I’ve used are affiliated via Awin.
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