Photo courtesy of Etsy.
The past couple of weeks revealed to me that I'm a constant work in progress within this beautiful, complex, and sometimes messy thing called life. It was as though I found myself riding a roller-coaster filled with several highs and several lows. I had moments of losing my composure and being completely reactive to trivial things like not having my car, as well as moments of responsiveness and clarity by having my needs met and being proactive toward the trivial and mundane.
On a much broader scale, I would argue that we're all works in progress. We all ride the ebb and flow roller-coaster that life sometimes feels like. We all have our moments of being reactive and responsive. We all have our good and bad days, good moments and bad ones. We're all human beings who are constant works in progress.
While we're all works in progress, here's several things that I've been (re)learning along the way, especially within the past two weeks.
Take a moment to collect yourself. As I mentioned earlier, I was reactive, and collecting myself was the last thing on my mind. I got angry, shut myself off, and allowed panic to have its way with me while I pondered, What am I going to do about this?
Instead, what I could have done was take that moment to collect myself by pausing and acknowledging what was happening (both internally and externally), tell myself, "I can do something about this. What could I do about this," and find solutions or some course of constructive action. I ended up doing all of these things after the fact and telling myself, "Marcus, you were freaking out and having a meltdown for no reason. It's going to be OK."
In a likewise manner, we can be proactive and work at doing something about our circumstances. We don't have to stay stuck and allow our circumstances to keep us stuck. For me, this meant doing something as simple as reaching out and asking for help. Case in point, even though I haven't had my car for more than two weeks, I had a couple of wonderful individuals graciously lend me their cars in the meantime. Because I made it known that I wasn't in the best headspace as of late, I had several people reach out and remind me that they loved me and that were there for me. Despite my reactive attitude, I was proactive and worked at doing something about my circumstances.
Lastly, in the midst of everything I've said thus far, it's good to remember that we're human. As such, we need to give ourselves grace because we'll have instances like I've experienced over the past two weeks. We can sit and be hard on ourselves, beat ourselves up over our behavior, and whatever else, or we can remember that we're not always going to be perfect, say/do the right thing, and seek forgiveness when needed. Like I said, we all ride the ebb and flow roller-coaster that life sometimes feels like.
At the end of the day, we're all works in progress. How will we allow this reality to guide us today? How will you allow this reality to be your guide today?
No comments:
Post a Comment