Some weeks…

Apr 15

I recently had a week that was stacking up to be god awful. You know the ones? On paper it looks like everything will flow smoothly but in reality, it really, really doesn't.

I could feel myself starting to unravel so here’s what I used to turn it around;

Make up, a dress and… eels.

I'm a psychologist and I struggle too. Sometimes the tide of overwhelm and self-doubt can sweep me away. But as I rode the tide this particular week I reflected on one thing:

In the hand that life deals us there is always space to choose how we interact with ourselves.

Here's what that looked like for me this week:

Mindfulness - notice what I was feeling and drop the judgment about what I was feeling.
Compassion - acknowledge the common humanity. This is what it feels like to be human sometimes.
Put on some make up.
Put on a nice dress.
Watch eels with my daughter (mesmerising!).
Breathe slowly and deeply (on repeat).
Acknowledge and celebrate my efforts above.

Being intentional about our wellbeing is so important. Yes, in the passing of time things may right themselves. But isn’t it nice to know that we have levers to pull to help that process?

I often think of the practice of wellbeing as having a big old kete* full of taonga**. As we travel through life experiencing challenges and obstacles, we naturally develop varied ways of coping and start to fill our kete.

Some of these coping strategies will serve us well and some may be counter productive. No matter, those that serve us well may rise to the top while the less effective ones settle to the bottom, maybe even fall out some of those cracks so often seen in worn and loved kete. Each time we come across a new challenge we have the opportunity to try out combinations from the kete and reflect;