A Simply Simple Year: Simple Lesson: It's ok to be sad

I was on top of the world after coming home from spending 5 weeks in Europe. Nothing could touch me. I loved life and I blissfully shared with whomever would listen about my new-found zest for life.

And then three weeks after my return life happened.

Well...technically nothing "happened"...but for whatever reason I soon found my happiness leaking out of my soul like a punctured balloon slowly withering into a shriveled up ball of rubber. Maybe it was the stress of starting a new semester. Maybe it was the stress of needing to crack down on the business plan I'm working on. Maybe it was the stress of going back to work. Maybe it was the stress of the 29 other things I have going on. Or maybe it was just the ups and downs of being a girl. Emotions...gotta love 'em!

Anywho...

I got so angry and embarrassed for the way I was acting and feeling. The less happy I got, the more angry with myself I got, and the more angry with myself I got, the less and less happy I got.

So then I thought of my little commitment to myself this year: Live Simply. So I simply accepted the fact that for whatever reason, I'm a little "off" right now. Life happens. It's ok to be down for a little while. And you know what, once I started to let go of trying to not not be ok, I started to be ok. That's a little confusing. Let me try that again...the less I beat myself up over having a bad week, the better I started to feel.

While it's ok to be down, it's not ok to treat people badly while you're unhappy. That's something I'm still working on. What I had to do this week was to learn how to hold my tongue (I failed about 4-5...maybe 6 times), but also to allow myself to sit in "it", whatever "it" was...and then I had to make a conscious effort to try and feel better. Sometimes you really do have to fake it 'til you make it. Get dressed, go to that dinner party you don't really feel like going to, call a friend you haven't talked to in a while, let someone in, go surfing, go on a run, get yourself to work, whatever it takes. It's dangerous to sit in unhappiness for too long. Before you know it, you'll be long past depressed and left alone to attempt to climb out of the quicksand of life's junk.

Here's what I did to lift my spirits.

Went on a walk to Gliderport on my lunch break.