Pain, self-care, getting out of rut
Hello friend,
I was feeling a sharp pain in my legs as I struggled to jog.
As the music blasted in my headphones, I felt extremely emotional fighting back tears. I still tried to run in an attempt to forget the pain, both emotional and physical.
But I was completely out of breath in just under a minute.
It was 5:30 am in the morning. I had barely slept for 3 hours. And I was emotionally overwhelmed and distressed. I won’t go into the reason here because it is not important.
What is important is what happened next.
After 30 minutes of half walking-half jogging, I calmed down. At least emotionally.
I was still sweating and struggling to maintain a steady pace while fighting physical pain and exhaustion.
But, my head was clear. And a strange sense of peace had settled in. I could still feel the emotional pain but it was as if I was observing it from a distance.
Since then I have not missed a single morning going through the same painful ordeal of jogging/walking/sprinting.
It feels like a miracle honestly.
Because no amount of positive pep talk or reading self-help has ever led me to action in this way.
I don’t know for how long I can maintain this consistency.
But if the pain is what it takes to get out of a rut and move toward positive action, then be it. I am going to take this pain and run with it. (Pun intended) 😀
On that note, here are three things I want to share this week:
1. A checklist to get through anything
The Wellness Wisdom newsletter from Patricia has become one of my favorite newsletters.
I love her deep philosophical musings and they feel like a gentle balm for the racing mind and overwhelmed heart on days when life feels hard.
In one of her older editions, she shared this marvelous checklist to get through anything. I love this and plan to use it frequently from now on.
Check it out here (Notion version)
2. Konmari creative life
Marie Kondo, the author of the famous book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, recommends keeping things that spark joy while decluttering your physical space.
This article applies the same principle to your creativity.
You need space to allow creative ideas to take form and spread through your consciousness. But it does not happen because of endless thoughts running on a loop in our minds daily.
The author recommends three ways to clear your thought cache and create space for creativity:
- Writing down your thoughts
- Apply the same principle of joy to your digital archive
- Treating social platforms in a similar manner
Read the complete article here
3. 15 journaling prompts to self-love
I struggle with self-love on most days.
Plus, my recent encounter with pain and positive action tells me that sometimes you need the pain to push through a difficult situation and create positive change instead of the mollycoddle of self-love
But I know self-love still has its place and I love the journaling prompts for self-love in this article.
Some of my favorites prompts are:
- How do you see yourself feeling and acting when you’re in a state of self-love?
- What do you like about your body? (Think about it with compassion and love in mind.)
- How does fear hold you back from loving and being loved?
- How can you make it easier for yourself to love and be loved?
- What’s one thing you can do this week to keep your self-love journey going?
And that’s all from me this week, folks!
Until next time
Love
Vishal