What the first workweek of the year brings and how I tend to deal with it
The way my husband and I have developed our lifestyle over the past few years means, that we spend quite a bit of time separated from each-other. This has a lot of advantages for our family – we wouldn’t be doing it otherwise – but it also carries some heavy moments of saying good by a few times a year. On top of this, 2 out of our 3 children are young adults currently studying abroad, which also means fantastic opportunities for self growth and learning, but also some sadness and worries when they each have to leave.
Well, the week after the holidays are over is one of these moments, and I have been catching myself dancing to the tunes of post-holiday blues. It isn’t very obvious I don’t think, I am not walking around in tears, it has just crept into my mood gently, stealing some of the generally positive and cheerful attitude I am usually known for. And even though my kids are only leaving in a few days, I am already noticing the pity-party emerging inside. I am starting to feel really sorry for myself – and when that happens I have learned to stop in my tracks and look in the mirror.
I am a very-very fortunate woman, with a wonderful, hard working husband and three fantastic kids, who are slowly but surely growing into amazing adults, just like I always hoped they would. We are all healthy and well, everyone doing what they love, including myself. I have a profession I enjoy and a business I love and I get to do what I am passionate about every day. (Ok, some days I have to administer which I am not so very passionate about, but those are far and few in between…) I am genuinely grateful for my life and the people in it. Not just my family but my friends, my colleagues, my clients and those who are teaching me to stretch and grow every day. This thought fills me up with such positive emotions, such joy and gratitude, that it overflows all self-pity and feeling blue and gives me fresh energy to work with. I now see the next time everyone will be together again in just a few weeks, and see all the wonderful projects and people I will be working with until then and am now excited and looking forward to what this next phase has to offer.
Does this mean that the blues are gone completely? Of course not, the sadness of some people I love being far from me lives within and that is just fine. Occasionally I get in touch with this sadness because it is part of who I am. From time to time I embrace it and allow it to drive my mood. But the joy of appreciating everything I have is what I choose to focus on for the most part. I choose to bring this emotion forward and keep it here so it can fuel my motor every day and keep me positive and cheerful.
I firmly believe, that our mood is really a choice and is sustained by habits. Tony Robbins is a great role model in this respect – as well as in many others – he is incredibly energetic and cheerful all the time. Here is a short video where he explains how our habits determine our mood and how to choose the emotions we want to rule our life.
Of course, while watching you are welcome to whistle the post-holiday blues…
http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-explains-how-train-emotions-2015-12
