I’ve had a radical thought, that I’m going to apply to my life and see what happens.
I’m doing to do the opposite of whatever it is I think I should do.
This radical idea pinged into my brain a couple of hours ago, as a result of a day spent musing about stress buckets.
The stress bucket model is a way to visualise what is causing stress in your life and to be aware of the things you can that work to release the pressure. Imagine you’ve got a bucket that represents your capacity to handle the stress in your life. Rain clouds above the bucket fill it with water (stress), and as the bucket fills up your ability to handle the jandal diminishes. An overflowing bucket for me is loud and messy crying face. The things you do to reduce your stress (rest, eat well, exercise, have a laugh, etc) cause holes to appear in the bottom of your stress bucket, thus allowing it to empty and avert meltdowns.
I drew this beautiful picture today of my stress bucket:
Beautiful drawing I know.
I know – I’m terrible at drawing.
And there I go again. Holding myself to some kind of impossible standard on everything.
I constantly berate myself for failing to achieve certain things, but it is starting to occur to me that I don’t even know who said these are things I have to achieve! I mean I beat myself up if I decide to put my feet up instead of cleaning the house. I stress out when I’m playing with my kids, because I’m not getting dinner ready, or doing something “productive”. If I’m stressing about something and it makes me cry and I need a bit of me time instead of doing work hours, then I find myself apologising to work colleagues for being a pain in the butt.
No-one ever seems to need my apologies or even think they have any value or meaning!
Where did this endless self-flagellation come from?!
This must stop. From now on, I’m going to embrace imperfection. I mean, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is mean to be insane behaviour right?
So, this is what the new me looks like – the picture below is from a gratitude journal I was given for Mother’s Day. The task I choose to do on the day in question was to draw the most delicious thing I’d eaten, so I proudly, carefully, lovingly recorded the fact I had enjoyed my favourite candy. Only I managed to instead create a new word, which is now slang in my house for stuffing something up.
Nailed it! Perfect.
Emma’s desperate attempt to impress the cat fails utterly
Kiity Fitton – usually up to mischief.
Kitty Fitton is a motivational speaker, MC and comedian. She is also a full-time blogger and writer. She is mother to four small people and was very cross to discover she had Parkinson’s Disease.
Find out more at her personal site below.
Emma Kyriacou. Quite good at hitting things.
Emma Kyriacou is a real-life ninja. Taking up Karate to help fight her Parkinson’s Disease, she’s co-founder of Good Moves and is passionate about promoting exercise to improve mobility and neuroplasticity. (Is that a word? It should be.)
Find out more at her personal site below.
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