Minds can get so cluttered up with fear, worry, judgment, guilt, shame, dread, distractions, self-consciousness, regrets, assumptions, cognitive distortions, other people’s behaviors and thoughts, the past, the future, and SO ON, that clearing your mind is an important skill.
I’ll be working on clearing my mind as I start my two-week vacation from work. Over-thinking is an old habit for me, so here and now I’m clearing my mind of everything except the current task, which is to create today’s blog post.
In each moment, I am taking a breath and letting go of any distractions (of which there are many).
Do any of today’s images help in clearing your mind?
As I’m clearing my mind for National Ride the Wind Day, how are you clearing your mind?
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “clearing your mind”:
Before I began walking my walk yesterday, I tweeted this:
Why did I post that I was better at walking and talking than I was at tweeting? I was doing the familiar and unhelpful cognitive distortion of comparisons — feeling “less than” because everyone I looked at on Twitter was getting way more likes and replies than I was.
Usually I tweet just for fun, not caring about numbers; yesterday, I got caught up in comparisons and felt worse and worse. I kept tweeting, hoping I would get more responses. I didn’t. I knew I would feel better if I stopped tweeting and started walking, but I didn’t, for TWO HOURS on a BEAUTIFUL day.
This reminded me of a therapy session earlier when somebody was talking about the difficulty of breaking old patterns of taking risks with money. This person was stuck in those behaviors and in unhelpful comparisons, too, which we talked about.
I broke my own comparison/tweeting cycle by posting the tweet above, putting on my shoes, and walking the walk.
.
After watching that duck swimming the swim, I tweeted this tweet:
Eventually, I stopped walking and saw impressive evidence of Michael decking the deck:
.
I messaged this message to my friend Jenn, who loves pugs …
… and enjoyed eating the eats.
I prepared for blogging the blog by capturing all these other images:
As usual, the Daily Bitch is bitching the bitch.
Here’s what was playing when I was walking the walk by the sea:
I can’t believe there are only 106 likes on YouTube for that amazing performance of the wonderful “Sea Journey” by the late, great Chick Corea, who always walked the walk. Here he is walking his fingers all over the keyboards with his Elektric Band in “Side Walk”:
Who wants to comment the comment?
Thanks to all who help me walk the walk, talk the talk, tweet the tweet, and blog the blog, including YOU!
Over the years, I have heard many people say they are waiting for the other shoe to drop, meaning “to await a seemingly inevitable event, especially one that is not desirable.”
If you’re waiting for more information to drop about “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” here it is:
I know I wrote about waiting for the other shoe to drop before, here at the Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally. I’m not going to wait to drop the sole important point of one of those posts, as follows:
Living with uncertainty is very difficult, yet we do it every day. Certainty is often an illusion — a denial of mortality and the constant changes we are barely aware of.
Here and now, as we live with the uncertainties of the pandemic and the results of the USA election, the level of uncertainty is very difficult to live with. I’m certain how this uncertainty is affecting me, my family, my friends, and my patients:
insomnia,
changes in appetite,
stress eating,
anger,
hopelessness,
helplessness,
worry,
anxiety,
depression,
lack of motivation,
a reversion to old unhelpful habits,
withdrawal,
fear,
catastrophizing,
blaming,
all-or-nothing thinking,
mind-reading, and
the rest of the cognitive distortions (which I’m certain you can find here).
I’m uncertain how I and millions of other people are going to live with so much uncertainty in the days ahead.
In a sea of uncertainty, I’m certain that routines — like daily blogging — help. I’m certain I have new images to share but I’m uncertain exactly what they are.
I’m certain that I felt less uncertainty about the future when I took those photos than I’m feeling now.
Here‘s “The Courage to Live with Radical Uncertainty” — a Ted Talk given by “Compassion-Driven Oncologist Shekinah Elmore” in March 2020, right before our current age of uncertainty.
Here‘s “Coping with Uncertainty” by MindTools Videos:
What are your thoughts and feelings about living with uncertainty?
No matter how I’m living with uncertainty, I’m certainly grateful to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.
… who gives me the courage to speak up. Yesterday, we spoke up to each other about the pandemic, racism, privilege, our work as therapists, the death of a shared patient from COVID-19, difficult people, uncertainty, masks, politics, hopes, our children, the past, the present, the future, and our long-time friendship.
Yesterday, in a therapy session, somebody talked about feeling expendable. When someone labels themselves in a painful way, I write the word up on the board, to get it out of the person’s head and so that we can look at the label with different perspectives, perhaps making the unhelpful label expendable.
A definition of “expendable” may be expendable, but I’m sharing it anyway.
ex·pend·a·ble
/ikˈspendəb(ə)l
adjective
of little significance when compared to an overall purpose, and therefore able to be abandoned.
“the region is expendable in the wider context of national politics”
synonyms: dispensable, able to be sacrificed, replaceable
(of an object) designed to be used only once and then abandoned or destroyed.
“the need for unmanned and expendable launch vehicles”
As I read that definition, it occurs to me that many people might be feeling expendable, as the current U.S. government shutdown drags on and on.
In that therapy session yesterday, I invited the expendable-feeling person to name what is opposite to expendable. Here’s one non-expendable word:
Another opposite-to-expendable word was “valuable.” Apparently a picture of that word was expendable.
Wait! I found “valuable” on this scale, which I drew on the board:
It might be valuable and appreciated, here and now, if I ask my readers these questions: Do you ever feel expendable? Appreciated? Valuable? Where are you on that scale, as you read this? What helps you feel less expendable and more valuable and appreciated?
I wonder if any of the photos in this post are expendable, appreciated, and/or valuable.
It’s always appreciated when my non-expendable boyfriend Michael asks me to dance, and last night, after his very appreciated and valuable dinner (pictured above), we danced to this music, which is the opposite of expendable to me.
I really appreciate that Michael danced with me for the full eight-and-a-half minutes of that highly valued McCoy Tyner tune.
I hope you know that your comments are very valuable and appreciated.
Finally, here is some non-expendable gratitude for all who helped me create this post and — of course! — for YOU.
For years, I would have answered the question, “Who is your harshest critic?” like so:
“It’s me.”
Many of the people I work with in therapy also say that they are their own harshest critics. Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Narrative Therapy, and other proven techniques, we acknowledge the harm of that harsh criticism and reduce its toxicity.
There are times in my life when my answer to the question, “Who is your harshest critic?” would be, “It’s not me.” I remember, decades ago, when I agonized over whether to leave my job as a writer at a technology company, which had not worked out as I expected. I said many harshly critical things to myself (including “you make terrible decisions!” “what makes you think you’ll find a better job?”) as I went through the painful process of pros and cons about staying or leaving. One of the obvious advantages of leaving was that I did not respect management at that company, so I did end up resigning. Before I left, one of the top managers said harsh things to me, including labeling me “a quitter” and somebody not capable of sticking to things that are challenging and difficult. Once this man externalized my internal harsh criticism, I was able to recognize the unfairness in his reaction, stand up straight, look him in the eye, and say, “That’s not true. I’m leaving because I know I can be happier elsewhere.”
I’ll never forget how good that felt — to directly confront those harsh messages and say, “That’s not true.”
Since becoming a therapist, I’ve done a therapeutic exercise in groups where people write down their harsh internal criticisms and we externalize them. Somebody in the group reads the harsh critical statement out loud, and the person gets a chance to respond back, sometimes being coached by others. It’s always inspiring to witness people challenge their internalized harsh critics, replacing those old and toxic messages with more accepting and helpful ones.
Last night, when I performed my latest original song, “It’s Not Me,” about a toxically critical person, I became my harshest critic, again. For one thing, I went on immediately after the featured performer, a 13-year-old prodigy “– The Mighty Quinn” — who blew out the joint with his fiddle playing and his singing. Here’s a photo of Quinn and his father:
They were the proverbial tough act to follow. I considered saying, “Let’s hear it for my opening act!” before I started performing, but I harshly criticized that and said something else instead. As I started playing, I realized that my ukulele was out of tune. I blanked on something I wanted to say, and I didn’t like that I needed to use a cheat sheet to remember some of the chords and words. After I finished, I sat down, ignoring the applause and the positive comments from people in the audience, listening, instead, to my harsh inner critic.
I then asked my new co-worker and friend, Alice (who is also a musician), whether she felt bad when her performances weren’t up to her own standards. She said many supportive things, including, “I think you’ll feel better when you watch the recording.”
And, when I watched the recording later, I did feel better. I let go of the role of my own harshest critic and, as always, it felt great! Here‘s the recording, which Alice made:
Soon after Christopher framed that comment, my dear cousin Lani brought over this perfectly framed house warming present:
The cats that are framed in that cat frame gift set look like our cat Oscar and the late, lamented Milo. I wonder what photos will be framed in those frames in the future?
Here are the rest of the photos I framed with my iPhone yesterday.
Here‘s a photo of Lani I framed with my iPhone over three years ago:
That’s Lani in the frame with her late, precious kitty, Jewel. As Lani and I framed many thoughts and feelings yesterday, she said she’s almost ready to consider getting another cat. I framed a request that Lani include me in her search for a new kitty, when she’s ready.
Cognitive reframing is a psychological technique that consists of identifying and then disputing irrational or maladaptive thoughts. Reframing is a way of viewing and experiencing events, ideas, concepts and emotions to find more positive alternatives.
I’ve also experienced people reframing events, ideas, concepts, and emotions to find more negative alternatives. In those cases, people might feel framed, like The Coasters describe in “Framed.”
I’m looking forward to the comments framed by my readers about this post.
Now it’s time for me to frame my thanks to all those who helped me frame this “Framed” post and — of course! — to YOU.
Consider the source of today’s post — it’s my blog! Is that a source you trust, know, can vouch for? Is it a source that’s helpful, doubtful, consistent, confusing, reliable, familiar, new, or whatever for YOU?
Consider the Source. If you’re receiving negative, upsetting messages, take a step back and look at where those messages are coming from. Is that source reliable? Is it usually negative? How do other people see that source? If the source is your own internalized critic, consider that you may be too harsh on yourself.
Consider the source of today’s photos — it’s my iPhone!
Is making noise making things better or worse? Today, I’m making noise about the fact that some news columnists are speculating that how the USA opposition party is making noise might be hurting their chances in the upcoming midterm election.
Lately, I’ve been making noise in my therapy groups, inviting people to be making noise when we do a mindfulness exercise that focuses on listening. This is the noise I’m making when I introduce that exercise:
In this mindfulness exercise, we’re going to focus on the sense of hearing. After you hear the sound of the chime, do your best to listen to all the noises in the room. Feel free to make noise to make the exercise more interesting for other people.
That’s my attempt at making it safer for people to be making noise, since many of us can be self-conscious about the noises we’re making, especially when other people are listening.
I’ll be making noise soon with these Right & Wrong Buzzers:
Even though I’m often making noise about letting go of unhelpful concepts of wrong and right, I’ll be making noise to encourage people to change old habits of thinking (including the cognitive distortions described here).
It’s okay to be making noise or to be silent about the other images I captured yesterday.
Because the wind was making so much noise yesterday, I didn’t go for my usual walk. Instead, I was making noise by making ukulele chords for my latest original song “I’m Mad About You.”
With that song, I’m making noise about anger (especially towards politicians).
It’s time for me to be making noise about gratitude, so thanks to all who helped me create this “Making noise” post and — of course! — to YOU, for all the noises you’re making.
