***Disclaimer: I am a speaker at heart! These notes are either transcripts of the podcast or notes I made in preparation. I try to correct the major grammatical errors, but writing is not my strength. Please forgive the inevitable errors 😘
Welcome friend to Consider Yourself Hugged episode 59: Today’s Hug: Decisions to Make During This Tough Week. Click here or pic to listen.
I’m Dr. Tami West, here every week to bring you tips on living a life that brings you mental and emotional wellbeing.
As our country is urged today to prepare for the “hardest and saddest week,” I wanted to give you 4 choices to make to get through it together! I hope they'll speak to you in a powerful way!
1. Dive into your belief system:
Mine is Christianity. It’s important during crisis times like this to know what you believe, and NOT just to always get your information from others’ interpretations – pastors, authors, etc. Those are absolutely important and SO helpful, but what do YOU believe? Ask 3 preachers what this crisis means as it relates to God. One will tell you it’s God’s wrath. Another will tell you that everyone is going to face adversity at some point in life, and having Christ as our center is crucial. Jesus tells us in John 16:33: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. A third will talk about Jesus’ love. Each of our experiences during this time will cause us to need different types of hope. Have you lost someone? Are you working on the front lines? Have you lost your income? Are you lonely?
Knowing what you believe, why you believe it, and being able to lean on it is foundational. I’m not a sports person, but for we Christians, it’s like we’ve been preparing for the super bowl of faith for our entire lives! It’s time to see if we really believe it!
2. Choose who you want to be through this.
THIS relates to what I talk about in the realm of stress and identity, although I won't specifically talk about stress here. We each play a role in this, and it’s up to us to decide what that role is. My son live in San Francisco and my daughter in Orlando. Funny, they all still have work while my husband and I don’t – ugh! My older son works for a political non-profit and can work remotely. My daughter works for Disney Cruise Line, shoreside and working from home, so we’re not sure how long she’ll be working. My other son moved to SF to look for employment in his field, he has a masters in wildlife biology. Until that happens, he took a job a couple of months ago at their neighborhood grocery store. He’s still working there. Our daughter Mindy is a nurse at a local hospital. This morning I saw a story on the news. A nurse’s husband was diagnosed + and hospitalized – extremely ill! She’s a stay at home mom currently but decided to return to work to help as soon as her quarantine time is over.
On the flip side, several of my friends are now at home with their children. They’re posting FB videos of their lesson. Single people alone at home are posting memes.
Here’s the point: As best you can, recognize that you have power in this situation. What I mean is, I’ve seen some Facebook posts about “not having the luxury of sheltering at home” or being "forced to be at home."
This takes your power away. It gives you an identity of being powerless, hopeless. There are many things we have no control over in this situation, and many that we do. It will change your entire perception to say what my son is saying “I could quit and get unemployment, but I really like my coworkers and don’t want to just leave them to do this alone.”
Be proud of your role, whether it’s healing, serving, feeding kids, homeschooling, posting inspiring things, whatever it is – decide who you’ll be! Because when this becomes history and you tell your kids/grandkids/greats, you don’t want to look back and think oh I wish I had experienced it differently.
3. Pay close attention to other humans, even in passing.
I mentioned in an episode a few weeks ago that we’re all living this differently, but for sure we’re all at a higher emotional level. I did a FB live last week about going to the post office and Walmart (click to here story). The reason I left is because I was at an 8 on my emotional scale and I knew I was about to overreact. It’s time to lose phrases like, people are idiots! And people only think about themselves. Prior to March-ish, on any given day you’d encounter people who were currently going through something and people who weren’t. Today, you can almost be assured everyone is! So what a better time to tweak your thinking about humans and the world!
And finally
4. How will you help?
When you look back on this time, won’t it be great to contemplate how you helped to change the world! Some people are serving on the front lines or doing something to keep our country going - nurses, stores, servers, drivers, child nutrition workers, teachers, emergency, etc. Some are making/donating masks. Some give money. Some pray. Don’t let the most important historical time in our lives pass you by without contributing something. I'm contributing more to my Facebook group. I'm contacting my neighbors to pick up things at the store. Not much, but something. I’m trying to give away hugs in the form of pins and stickers. When I go to the store/post office, I give them to whoever helps me. Ive been giving them away through contests on my Facebook Stress Club page and am looking at partnering with some companies to make them more available. It’s not much, but it’s something.
A few weeks past, one of my podcast guests, Donna Clark Love, quoted Edward Everett Hale who said:
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
So do what you can!
There you have it. 4 things that can make this potentially saddest week for our country, bearable.
1. Dive into your belief system
2. Decide who you want to be through this
3. Pay close attention to other humans, even in passing
4. What will you do to help
And sadly, as always, that’s our time for today. I am praying every day for our country, our leaders, everyone’s roles, and people affected. I hope you’ll join me in doing that AND in staying mentally and emotionally healthy.
As always, Please pass the show link along to a friend or two and subscribe, download, and review wherever you are listening. And head over to tamiwest.com to get info if you’d like me to speak at your next event and also you’ll find the promised links and info. And I’d love for you to follow me on Facebook and all those other crazy social media outlets; links are in the show notes. If you’re a woman and you haven’t joined my private FB group The Stress Club, please do that now! It’ll be your daily sources for exiting the life of stress! Link is in the show notes
Thank you so much for listening and growing our special community!
I pray that each day you remember to love, to serve, to feel worthy, to grow, to connect, to change, and to be the best person you can be for yourself AND for the other humans in your world!
And until next time, Consider Yourself Hugged 😘🤗
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