Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness leads to Self-compassion

...just as awareness of others leads to compassion for them.

Emotions are okay. There is no such thing as a bad emotion. We have positive and negative emotions but that does not mean good or bad. Think of it more like science - you have a baseline (neutral) and you have positive (like protons) that brings you above your baseline and negative (like electrons) that bring you below your baseline. They are all beneficial and they are all part of being a normal human being. How we respond to those emotions can be good or bad. 

Connecting the dots...

Here Dr. Sood talks about the correlation between stress and a wandering mind. He does reference his book as published by the Mayo Clinic, but specifically discusses the importance of stress and a wandering mind. 

Dr. Sood is a world-leading expert in resilience and stress management and the creator of the Mayo Clinic Resilient Mind program. He is also a former professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. Dr. Sood has authored multiple books, including “The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living” and “The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness.” His innovative approach to resilience has been validated by more than a dozen clinical trials and positively impacts tens of thousands of people every year. See this website for more information. 

What are the signs that your current mental or emotional health is suffering? There may be signs or symptoms in four domains: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, or physical. Look to the left for specific ideas. 

My brain and heart divorced

my brain and heart
divorced


a decade ago


over who was

to blame about

how big of a mess

I have become


eventually,

they couldn’t be

in the same room

with each other


now my head and heart

share custody of me


I stay with my brain

during the week


and my heart

gets me on weekends


they never speak to one another


– instead, they give me

the same note to pass

to each other every week


and their notes they

send to one another always

says the same thing:


“This is all your fault’


on Sundays

my heart complains

about how my

head has let me down

in the past


and on Wednesday

my head lists all

of the times my

heart has screwed

things up for me

in the future


they blame each

other for the

state of my life


there’s been a lot

of yelling – and crying

SO,


lately, I’ve been

spending a lot of

time with my gut


who serves as my

unofficial therapist


most nights, I sneak out of the

window in my ribcage


and slide down my spine

and collapse on my

gut’s plush leather chair

that’s always open for me


~ and just sit sit sit sit

until the sun comes up


last evening,

my gut asked me

if was having a hard

time being caught

between my heart

and my head


I nodded


I said didn’t know

if could live with

either of them anymore


“my heart is always sad about

something that happened yesterday

while my head is always worried

about something that may happen tomorrow,"

I lamented


my gut squeezed my hand


"I just can’t live with

my mistakes of the past

or my anxiety about the future,"

I sighed


my gut smiled and said:


"in that case,

you should

go stay with your

lungs for a while,’

by John Roedel


I was confused

– the look on my face gave it away

“if you are exhausted about

your heart’s obsession with

the fixed past and your mind’s focus

on the uncertain future


your lungs are the perfect place for you


there is no yesterday in your lungs

there is no tomorrow there either


there is only now

there is only inhale

there is only exhale

there is only this moment


there is only breath


and in that breath

you can rest while your

heart and head work

their relationship out."


this morning,

while my brain

was busy reading

tea leaves

and while my

heart was staring

at old photographs


I packed a little

bag and walked

to the door of

my lungs


before I could even knock

she opened the door

with a smile and as

a gust of air embraced me

she said


“what took you so long?’

by John Roedel

John Roedel is a comedian and poet that I've come across in my time scrolling through Facebook. He has a website and a Facebook page and I've found many more of his writings to be inspiring. Feel free to check him out here: https://www.johnroedel.com/