You know those days, weeks, sometimes even months that just don’t seem to go your way? Everything you do seems to fall through or go horrible array.
Work is frustrating and seems futile. Relationships feel like more work than play. Exercise seems tiresome with the promise of results unfulfilled. Things aren’t terrible. And yet, everything seems like it could be a whole lot better.
I’ve been stuck in this seemingly bottomless pit for a while now. That’s not to say I don’t have good days, fond memories, or positive experiences. But when the challenges hit, they do so relentlessly like waves crashing on the rocks.
Endless. Sleepless. Eternal.
Sounds melodramatic, I know. And yet it is how I feel. Feelings can consume you if you let them. They have a power that builds upon itself rolling into a thunderous snowball of emotion.
So, what will be the rope to pull me out of this pit? What will be the ice-shattering hammer that will dismantle this emotional avalanche?
Let’s start with a deep breath. In and then out. Now repeat. Just that for a while. Let the world around me just fade away for the time being and breathe. A small action, but one that has immense power in its simplicity. A small step arriving at calm.
The days, weeks and months lose their grandiose power when I allow my mind to focus only on the now. The now which involves a slow deep breath. In and then out. It doesn’t allow space for the failures, disappointments and unknowns. It only allows room for my lungs to fill with air and slowly let it all go.
Only room for a deep breath in and then out.