Or Not...

So that unraveled faster than I anticipated. Apparently the former boss held 2 interviews this week and is having the candidates submit writing samples and will likely make an offer by the end of the week.

I just got my login information yesterday.

I've been staring at my computer all morning waiting for my access to update so I could start actually working.

I could have been helping out at the chiropractor, WHERE THEY ACTUALLY NEEDED ME TODAY.

I'm frustrated. I'm on the verge of tears. I'm trying to detach myself and look at why I am feeling the way that I am. Being disappointed and frustrated are completely normal and legitimate emotional responses. It's okay and understandable for me to be feeling this way.

And while there is the little voice in the back of my head that is smirking, laughing in disgust at my excitement that I deserved to have something go right, I've noticed a change there. It's a little voice. It's not an ominous din. It's little and I see it and I acknowledge it's presence, which sends it hissing away.

My last several meditations have been exceptionally appropriate in providing me with awareness, healthy coping mechanisms, and perspective, given my current circumstance.

The first was on Sophrosyne:

Whether it's electronics, clothes, or indulgent food, our days are filled with ever increasing forms of consumption. Perhaps we do it to cope with busyness, or numb ourselves from stress or anxiety. Maybe we're enticed by images in entertainment, in advertising and social media. But if we don't challenge these impulses and influences, we end up overeating, binge watching, or buying things we don't really need. Sophrosyne is an ancient Greek word that describes a healthy approach to moderation based on a deep sense of self awareness. This philosophy begins by acknowledging our excesses, and then mindfully recognizing the difference between need and want. Once we recognize how and why we over consume, sophrosyne suggests that we focus on what we will gain, rather than what we will lose, by changing our habits. With this mindset, moderation isn't a constraint on our wishes and pleasures, but rather it's a source of balance of health and peace. Of course, change takes time and effort, and it's important we face our excesses with patience and compassion, especially if we slip up. So the next time you have the urge to watch, or shop, or feast, keep in mind the philosophy of sophrosyne. Start by asking, is this a need? Or a want? Imagine the peace of mind you'll gain if you invest your afternoon in activity that's truly meaningful. Consider the money you'll save when your budget prioritizes needs over indulgences. Think of the extra space you'll have in your home without clutter. Mindful moderation helps us create contentment as we reap the benefits of increased health, savings, and wisdom. "Out of moderation, a pure happiness springs." 

What does this have to do with a job being pulled out from under my feet again? Plenty! Rather than focusing on the "have not's" of this situation and being overwhelmed to the point of eating my feelings, I'm instead going to focus on what I DO have. A place to work temporarily while I continue my search for the next best thing. I have a place to stay (several, actually). I have food in my belly. My children are provided for and I have just enough to get by. I do not have a need for clothes, going out to eat, or splurging in many other ways, so I am able to comfortably keep things to a minimum. To live in moderation without feeling like I am living in uncomfortable restraint.

Another was on the Wishing Tree. It's an old story, that deep in a forest there lived a wishing tree, and that whatever you thought about, it was granted. A home, fortune, and a beautiful spouse were all granted to a man one day because it was what he thought he wished for. But when he started to doubt his luck, to think that he wasn't worthy of such wonderful things, the tree took them away. He thought he wasn't worthy, and so he wasn't. So he walked away, grumbling under his breath that nothing good ever happened to him. He chose not to stay present, to be content and deserving of the positive things in his life, and so he lost them.

I don't want to be that man. I was once like that man, but I no longer have to be. I have so many other things to be grateful for in my life, that another job falling apart doesn't make me unworthy of deserving all the things that are going right and falling into place.

Am I frustrated? Yes.
Am I disappointed? Yes.

But these are temporary, and I am still so loved, so deserving and worthy of great things, regardless of a minor financial setback.

Employed At Last... sorta

After a pretty significantly frustrating and disappointing 2 weeks on the job hunt front, I have found myself returning to employment for my boss in MN. It is temporary. It is part time. It is remote. But "temporary" with him could easily become 6 months, as it did last year. I have also offered to come to MN once a month to do any in house scanning and filing that needs to be completed. He is sending me a new computer tower, so that I will have access to the VPN (which I didnt have before and cut my productivity in half). My goal is to prove that we can make this work permanently.

So now I have a project of tidying up my desk, prepping my workspace to be a functional office again, and being thankful for another opportunity to have a steady income. I have been so blessed to be helping at the chiropractor, but I also know that position is drawing to a close quite rapidly. I am grateful for the experience and the money!

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I have made the decision that I am going to be my healthiest (and hottest!) on my 40th birthday. I have started the painfully slow process of working my way up to proper cardio, without injuring myself. It's slow, but I have completed day 2 of 30 minutes of daily dedicated exercise. I've recommitted myself to a more structured and healthy diet. I am limiting myself to 1 cup of coffee per day. I want to be the healthiest I have ever been.

It's a good feeling.

2018

This has been an emotional year, to say the least. It started with a huge shift. Moving back to Michigan after 14 months of the most selfish thing I have ever done for myself. Some times were really great. Some times were really, really bad. Bad enough I moved home.
I moved home just in time to see my family through extreme hardship. My father almost died, and I did my best to hold us all together.
I thought I had met someone. They met someone else.
I then spent months being angry. Really angry. At others. At how I was the consolation prize, the after thought. Mostly I was angry with myself. Angry that I felt I needed the validation of any man to know my worth.
I started attending CoDA meetings and reading books and really embracing my codependency. Not as something to blame, but as a means to understand AND MAKE A CHANGE.
I started to get comfortable with making changes, saying no without feeling guilty, and beginning to make boundaries.

Then I met someone. I met someone who is kind, gentle, thoughtful, and very understanding of where I am coming from. My knee jerk reaction is to flinch at so many things... emotionally flinching if I make an intellectual mistake, having previously been looked down at, snubbed, and judged. Flinching if anyone orders a beer, anticipating the 8 to 10 that will follow, and the emotional abuse that follows on the heels of intoxication. Flinching if anything breaks, fearing the temper tantrums of yelling and stomping around that I had grown accustomed to.
These things don't happen. There are times I fear it's too good to be true. But I'll take it as long as I can have it!

I just put my dog down. Its hitting me a lot harder than I was anticipating. She was such a good girl.

So 2018 draws to a close similarly to how it started. Mourning the loss of something that was significant, while looking forward with hopeful optimism to what comes next.

I've cut ties with the past. I dont want to live there anymore. My future holds promise, but it's being present in the now that I'm really interested in.

A Sad Day

I put down my dog Butterscotch today. She was in my lap with a belly full of treats when she took her last breath. She had lost so much weight lately, I knew something was wrong.

Lung cancer. Both sides and extremely aggressive. So I decided to end her suffering and give her peace in dignity.

I was alone.

It's hard saying goodbye, even when you know it's the right thing to do.

I'm so tired now. My eyes are swollen from a years worth of tears I finally let myself cry.

This was an emotional week even before the dog died.

Im so blessed to have the people in my life that I do. I am loved, even when I feel unlovable.

Hurt

I'm having a hard time. A couple days ago I spent the night on the exes couch, as he had made plans to go out late. I agreed. In the morning when he woke up and came downstairs, he thought he would try to cuddle or something and sat on the couch next to me... right on my fused wrist. I yelled as it crunched and I involuntarily kneed him. Yesterday I was walking across some grass and slipped, dislocated my surgery knee. It hurt. Bad.

I'm covered in bruises and swollen injured joints and just feel broken.

I'm in a flare and my body is failing left and right. I cant pretend it doesnt hurt anymore. My whole body hurts.

I feel like a burden. A twisted, dysfunctional lump of unworthiness.

And there is nothing I can do about it.

Healing

Our being has a tendency towards wholeness and health. If you fall and scrape your knee, your body will heal itself. But first we have to clean the wound, and get all the dirt out, so our body can properly repair. In a similar way, our consciousness wants to heal itself, but it has a tendency to be overactive. Like dirt in a wound, the active mind prevents us from healing and coming into our wholeness. When we meditate and quiet our mind, and see things objectively, we begin the process of untangling our thoughts and cleaning our mental space so our psyche can begin it's healing process. As Rachel Naomi Remen once stated, "Silence is a place of great power and healing." So look to your practice as a restorative place, where you can start to heal wounds, new and old. Get silent, go within, and let the body and mind repair. 

I'm beginning to really understand how much healing can take place within silence. Often, I hide from it. This week I'm learning to embrace it. Rather than fussing and fretting about what everyone else is thinking or feeling, I'm focusing a little more inward, and pondering more on what I'm thinking and feeling! Crazy, I know! Now that I've identified some pretty toxic behaviors I subject myself too, I'm working on breaking away from those behaviors. Stepping away from the need to put myself down. Setting down the angry rocks labeled "abandonment" or "betrayal" that I have been hurling at phantom figures in my mind. Those figures just swirl away into mist as my stones wiz through them, simply a mirage. I'm expending energy STILL on being upset, angry, and hurt... and for what? It doesn't make me feel better. 

"It hurts because it mattered..."

Well I wish it didn't matter so much. I want to just let it all go. Release the negativity into the universe and have it fucking stay out there!! But that isn't really healing then, is it... I have to scrub the wound clean before it can really begin to heal. I've been stuck in the swearing because it fucking hurts phase long enough. Swearing and being mad and flailing around and poking at it doesn't heal the wound. Scrubbing it out, giving it time, and not fucking picking at it is what heals the wound. 

I have the rest of my life to look forward to. I'm not going to let a few minor setbacks derail my progress. I am the master of my fate.

And it's going to be incredible. 

Autoreactivity

Imagine for a moment, you've traveled up north for a family reunion. As you mingle with distant relatives you haven't seen in years, you're on your best behavior. Interactions are warm and polite. There may be awkwardness, annoyances, or differences in politics, but everyone keeps the conversation cordial. But it's a different story on the 3 hour car ride home with your partner of many years. Each of you can trigger the other into irritation or anger with the slightest thing. Perhaps their tendency to switch the radio station frequently or a habit of singing loudly and off key. In our closest and dearest relationships our patience dwindles, our reactivity heightens, and our worse behaviors come out. When our sibling or best friend pushes the wrong button, whether intentionally or not, we often react without thinking. We become defensive, impatient, or angry, and snarl back with a curt remark or a fuming email. And it can happen so fast it doesn't even feel like there was a millisecond to consider our reaction. Perhaps they'll forgive us, but if we keep this us, we risk damaging the relationship. Through mindfulness, in essence, we're training the brain to be less reactive. We're learning to become aware of our emotional responses and then to regulate them. So when we're triggered and about to react, there is an opportunity to tap into our practice. We can slow our breath, calm our simmering emotions, and find a more peaceful state from which to respond. As Ariana Huppington said, "We have little power to choose what happens, but we have complete power over how we respond." At first we might create only a sliver of a space between our trigger and our reaction, but over time this sliver becomes a crack, and then and inch, and then a space wide enough to stand. And from this space our response is calm, thoughtful, and wise. 

I've been avoiding writing. I've been avoiding thinking and feeling and grieving and growing. I've been avoiding holding myself accountable. I have been a listening ear, a coach, a support, to those around me, and I have been avoiding taking care of myself. It has been a relapse of sorts, but more so a surrender into my current state of depression. I have so many options ahead of me, and breaking free of my codependency means having to make those decisions for myself. It's a little daunting to be back in this space again, but I feel more comfortable this time around. More aware. More accepting. Its time to refocus on responding to my life from a place of calm. Releasing the chaos and negative autoreactivity...