I learned a lot this weekend. There was much “experience, strength and hope”. I mean to disseminate tidbits in a series of posts to avoid having people try to read an entire thesis in one sitting.
The first of these “bits” I’d like to share is in evaluating the day at the end of the day. Some call this “taking a daily inventory”, or journaling. I was shared a critical difference between the former and the latter. Journaling, as we’re taught, often involves our thoughts and feelings. It can be a very effective emotional dump. I essentially took this as what the daily inventory was as well. While this can be good for sorting ourselves out, it really doesn’t capture who we are in the physical world. It can put us in the role of the dependent or victim. Instead it was suggested that an inventory consist of the actions we took through the course of the day and were they inline with both our short and long term goals in terms of healing and progressing in life.
Feelings are just that, feelings. They can hurt, but in the end they don’t impact much except our own behavior if we let them AND they pass in a relatively short amount of time. That’s not to say you shouldn’t feel your feelings, but it is important to note if the actions taken are really just medication for those feelings. My feelings are immature and do not serve as a capable moral compass. Instead I ask what would my HP have for me and where am I aiming at? This “30,000 foot” perspective is very helpful if I choose to use it. I still experience fear, anger, sadness, but I find taking actions that passivate feelings instead of working though them compounds them.
The New Normal 