The dial doesn't go down as fast as it goes up.
You are not an appliance.
One of the weirdest expectations I think we have of ourselves is that we can turn our emotions up and down quickly and instantly recover from feeling them. It’s not true. Shake It Off isn’t just a Taylor Swift song. Part of caring for ourselves is giving ourselves space and strategies to recover from big feelings. There are literal chemical reactions happening in your body that have to be processed. We flood our systems with all sorts of things at these moments—endorphins, adrenaline, cortisol… And it’s not until after our body has time to deal with that new ecosystem that we can start to integrate, process and digest what’s happened.
You don’t have to be ok right away after feeling big things.
You don’t have to be able to calm all your systems down instantly after a peak experience (good or bad).
You don’t have to plough through when your body has not caught up with you just yet.
Get curious about how your body is feeling in those moments. Experiment with what helps you regulate. Deep breaths, physical activity like a shake or a dance, a drink of water, a snack… One of the greatest experiences of being human is getting to feel these peak moments. You don’t have to rush.
Special Holiday Offer!
.From now through the new year everyone who becomes a paid supporter of Permission Granted will receive a complimentary copy of my audio course How to Give Yourself Permission ($25 value).
Have the audio on your phone or computer so anytime you need support to make and action the choices you long for it’s there for you. How to Give Yourself Permissionhelps with:
Understanding what’s holding you back with kindness and empathy.
Decluttering some of those reasons in your head about why you shouldn’t take action.
Deciding which size steps suit you and your nervous system right now.