The Countdown Begins
As I sit here in the discomfort of a family members’ home, surrounded by way too many suitcases and empty cups of coffee, I realise that life is about to change quicker than I have the ability to control. My mind is racing with to-do lists while my body sits idle in anticipation.
The countdown has begun.. t-minus 10 days ’til take-off.
After four glorious years in Alabama and three small children later, my family and I have decided to return to our old stomping grounds of Topsham, England. Uprooting your life, your career, your family, is a hell of a job. It takes a toll on you – physically and mentally. My client’s will often hear me say, “I can talk the talk, but I can not always walk the walk!” and this is true! I have fears, anxieties, and insecurities like most. I may have the book-learned knowledge, theories, and skills, but I am still human.
With the encouragement from my friends, family, co-workers and a bad-ass therapist of my own, today I choose to practice what I preach.
Life is hard, but it’s not a hard life. It may be a bad day, but it’s a Good Life (wink wink). When we slow down and focus on the present, focus on the good, and focus on the things that are within our control, we find that the joy in the journey. Today, I choose to appreciate the chaos that surrounds me because this means that things are happening. I choose to be grateful for the opportunity to move to the other side of the world with the ones I hold closest in towe. Ultimately, I choose to focus my thoughts in a way that serves me.
One of the first things I typically teach my clients is the basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Essentially, your thoughts affect your emotions which affects your behavior.
Think about it – if I focus on all of the things that could go wrong (and trust me, there’s a lot of them), I will feel anxious, and I will behave in an agitated, stressed and overwhelmed manner. In contrast, if I focus on the positive things that I know to be true (we are safe, we are loved, we are going to be okay), immediately, I feel calmer and I behave more rationally.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe that you can always just “think your way out of stress and discomfort” (I have more theories on that one!) but one thing that I do have control over at this very moment is my thoughts. So, for now, I choose to think happy, be happy, and act happy.
In all honesty, I think this may have been a hype letter to myself.. but if there is anything you can take away, let it be this: life is hard but it really is a Good Life.
