Episode Summary
Last night I had one of those jaw dropping realisations. It’s only a small thing, but I think it was HUGE for me. In this episode I share what that is and what I think it means to me moving forward.
Episode Transcript (Edited)
Hi and welcome today’s episode of Hope, Help, Happiness.
Now, today’s episode is called “I’m Stunned To Realise This”. The reason why I’m calling it that is because of something that happened to me last night.
I think it’s important to start this episode by talking about my perception of the difference between knowing and realising.
When I consider the situation I’m in and the challenges I face, I can talk at some length and with some more authority about what’s going on and what I need to do.
But knowing and doing are very different things.
And whilst I know what to do, it’s more of an intellectual idea at this moment in time. I haven’t internalised it to change my behaviour yet.
That’s where the difference between knowing and realising comes in. I think when I “realise” I’ll suddenly get that “Ahhh, right” sensation. That’s when things will start to happen.
And I had one of those last night.
So last night I went out with friends and as a result of things that happened, I came away hugely disappointed with myself on the quality of my evening and so started beating myself up.
As an aside, I could probably do a completely different episode on my expectations and how often the challenges I face are because of the difference between my expectations and reality. But that’s an aside.
So anyway, I came away disappointed and didn’t feel good and I came home somewhat deflated. Now as I was walking back from my car to my front door, I mulled over it and I started to feel some of the negative and downtrodden emotions take over my physiology.
But, and I did this automatically. I caught them.
I acknowledged them for what they are, and I told myself, “Well, that’s a choice. I don’t need to choose those thoughts. I can choose alternative thoughts”.
So I reframed the evening and chose a different pattern of thoughts.
As a result of that, my mood lifted before the lowness really took over. I felt much better and it all happened automatically without me thinking about it.
And this is what I’m stunned by.
Because I realise now there is hope for me to be able to deal with this and prevent future setbacks, future challenges, future adversities from having the impact that they’ve had on me in the past.
And I was stunned to realise it was as simple as that.
Now it’s not always easy. And sometimes I’ve known this when I felt like that before but I’ve not chosen to take the path of interrupting it.
So whilst it might be simple, it isn’t necessarily easy.
But it was a stunning example for me – I’ve just got to change my thoughts. If I change my thoughts, I can change my feelings.
And by changing my feelings I can change this whole experience and move away from feeling depressed to feeling at least neutral and maybe even good about what’s going on.
So it was one of those tiny, tiny moments that could be a pivotal point for me moving forward.
So I thought I would share that with you today, and I hope that you will be able to take something from that.
Until tomorrow.
