You lost your job and the bills are overwhelming, your partner just received a scary diagnosis from the doctor, your child is in big trouble with a capital T, again! There is a dark cloud hovering over you. Your mind seems stuck on a track that screams “Disaster,” and it is impossible to understand how people around you are fussing about their neighbor’s dog, their boss’s irritating habit, or how they are too busy to get an oil change.
The idea that life will return to normal, that you might actually find something funny or be able to relax at a movie seems preposterous.
Your mind says, “I must find a job today; my electricity is going to be turned off; my partner might die; the medical bills are going to send us into bankruptcy; how do I fix my child.”
It may feel wrong to suggest that this is exactly the time when you must reach for normalcy, to indulge in pleasure, to laugh out loud. But human BEINGS (not human DOINGS) cannot thrive on an unending diet of non-stop thinking/searching/fixing a big problem. Exhaustion sets in, mental and physical, hitting-the-brick-wall-melt-into-a-little-puddle can’t sleep or get out of bed type of exhaustion.
Your search for financial stability, for parental peace of mind, for the calm in the storm is not reached without the inner strength that comes from nurturing the body and soul.
Do something fun, recharge the battery. Go to a movie and lose yourself. Play your favorite music. Dance to it. Do something frivolous in the world with your tribe. Play like a child or with a child. Give yourself something to think about besides your sad, worried feelings.
When you do something out in the world, with other people, even when you don’t want to, you remember there is a world of possibility.