Self help

Perhaps when you were young, someone taught you that when you feel overwhelmed, step away and give yourself a moment.

Maybe you grew up practising that and maybe you didn’t. If you didn’t you might find that as an adult when you feel overwhelmed you don’t quite know how to handle it.

The feeling might end up growing and growing to the point where it’s now unbearable. Then all of a sudden you remember that in the past it helped to give yourself a moment.

Even though you know it could help, you don’t do it straight away because you’re almost skeptical. It might not work, you might end up feeling exactly the same.

But then you do it, you step away, get some fresh air and take a few deep breaths.

It helps.

You feel calmer afterwards.

In that moment you remember that (even though you forget time and time again), you’re capable of supporting yourself in difficult or uncomfortable situations.

Finding comfort in moments of pessimism

I have this idea that sometimes there is comfort in moments of pessimism, in thinking about and accepting the possibility of the worst case scenario coming to life.

It’s not so that you can dwell but instead so that you can understand life sometimes turns out differently to how you expected.

You just have to learn to be okay with it which might be a hard pill to swallow.

Of course there is always a place for optimism but sometimes it isn’t helpful. Sometimes what you need is to accept that a situation isn’t going to turn out well.

And once you do that, things get a little bit easier.

I want the world…

We all have our Veruca Salt moments every once in a while.

Can you think of a time when you got annoyed/angry when you didn’t get what you want?

Maybe you had an idea of what you wanted in your mind but found that the other people in your life didn’t comply with that vision.

Granted you might not have shouted and your wants may not have been expensive things for others to pay for but the idea behind it is the same.

The basis of Veruca Salt is someone who is selfish, inconsiderate and greedy.

Yet she was also someone that knows what they want, was determined and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

We all have moments when we put our wants, needs and desires above all else. In truth it’s not always a bad thing as long as you don’t put yourself in danger or treat others poorly in the process.

In search of something

I think that most people go through the stage at some point in their lives where they’re in search of something.

You might call it finding yourself, getting to know you, self-exploration and so on.

It’s an important part of life that effects your career path, the friends you make time for, the people you date, what you do in your free time etc.

The fascinating thing is that when you go out to find yourself you have no idea what you’re looking for. You’re just searching and perhaps it’ll begin with something new and uncomfortable because surely you can’t find yourself in the ordinary.

But eventually I think for a lot of people the breakthrough comes in small moments.

Pivotal moments

How one small act can change it all

One of my oldest beliefs is that pivotal moments exist. We don’t always recognise them in the moment but on reflection we can see that the small thing that we said or did changed the trajectory or has greatly impacted who we are today.

I experienced a pivotal moment over a year ago. I committed to an act of bravery in spite of fear and panic. Unlike before even, prior to taking any action I knew that I was on course to quite literally transform my life, I could just feel it.

It was that feeling that enabled me to go forth despite the survival mode bit of my brain presenting a strong case against doing what I wanted to do.