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Sensitive.
Mornings are my favorite. But there is something about Sunday mornings in particular. I’m not sure if it’s restful peacefulness of a week coming to a close or the calm before an eventful week ahead. Either way, sitting with a warm cup of coffee ☕️ in front of my computer while the sun rises outside my office window – this is my happy place. It’s a time of reflection and preparation. I type out the thoughts that have been weighing on my mind, more for my own processing than anything else. As with most mornings, it’s hard to narrow my thoughts into a flowable post. Topics that have been swirling…
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Rise Above.
Lately, I’ve been having a hard time keeping my mouth shut. Having made sacrifices for people who don’t acknowledge or appreciate how I’m hurting myself for their benefit has been tolling. So badly, I want to just yell at them and say, “You did this! You didn’t do that! You are this way! It is your problem!” I’ve had to muster up a lot of strength to not blame and shame. In the age of social media, moving on from people who have hurt us can be difficult. With each post that pops up on our feed, it is a painful reminder of what could have, should have, was or isn’t. Being the stubborn person that I am,…
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Loneliness – Part 2
It’s been 4 months since I wrote this post on loneliness, and 6 months since this pandemic dramatically altered our lives. I think most of us would agree, we did not expect it to be so impactful and last. this. long. If you’ve been following along here for a while, you may have noticed that I love learning about how our emotions develop through chemical reactions in our brains. Here are a few things I’ve learned in my reading of Together by Dr. Vivek Murthy: Our brain has two networks: one for social processing and one for non-social processing. When we are done performing a task (non-social processing), our brain immediately switches back to social thinking. So even when we’re…
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Empathy.
I have a colleague that made a big mistake. Because of our roles and responsibilities within the company, I had to pick up the pieces of his fall-out. And I. was. pissed. about it. 😤 His poor judgment caused me additional stress and hours more of work. I made damn sure he knew all that I had to do to cover his ass. If I had to swoop in and rescue him, he was going to learn a lesson out of it. Now, he’s normally pretty up-to-snuff. After the dust settled a bit, I asked him how he was doing. Turns out, he took his mistake pretty hard. He felt terrible about it, guilty, and embarrassed. Additionally, he was going through a…
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Independent.
I was talking to a friend who asked, “Why would people think that I wouldn’t settle down?” 😬 That, is a loaded question, my friend. While marriage and a family are important to him, he’s been self-reliant and independent for a very long time. He thinks he’s open with information, but he’s actually quite reserved. He tells you what you need to know (logically) and not much more (emotionally). He’s had relationships, but not real meaningful ones. And they’re not meaningful, because he defaults to independent and self-reliant behavior with no emotional vulnerability to build connection. He thinks no one is going to do something as good as he’s going…
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Vibe.
Humans are an interesting species, aren’t they? Trying to wrap my head around the social behaviors occurring during this pandemic has my mind running overtime. I mean, I’m not surprised with some of the things that are happening. Humans are social animals who conform in response to perceived pressure from others. That’s basic psychology. But here’s a fun video to demonstrate just because: What has surprised me most about this situation is the positivity. So many people are truly trying to make the best of this situation and are trying to spread joy throughout their communities. I’ve seen videos of teachers parading through neighborhoods in a caravan to see their students. I’ve seen small pop-up “give…