Old Soundtracks are hard to break. Here’s one that is showing up right now, seems completely normal and yet, I recognize it as a thought that is not true and not helpful and here it is:
“I can’t do THAT when my plate is so so full with all this other stuff.”
It’s the “you can’t get healthy, be clear, not be stressed, work on your thinking while in the midst of a very full, busy week like this one. You will be lucky to get the work done that you HAVE to do let alone spend time dreaming and planning and doing life on purpose.”
It’s the thought we use to overeat when we’re stressed, to have a drink on the day we said we would abstain, to live from a place of barely there because conditions in life point to going easy on your other goals just to survive the present.
I can see that’s total crap and yet I have a soundtrack for that. Instead, for now, my soundtrack should be more like, “Do I think I can manage this work AND give myself what I said I wanted which was good eating habits and intentional choice?”
“I have a choice this evening. I am not powerless because my work sucked all the power from me. So what would I like to do?” In that scenario I could say, “I would like to overeat and drink this wine.” I could also say, “I am actually tired, but fine. I can be this busy and I can still be in my power, healthy and making progress forward.”
That fallacy around conditions needing to be perfect for us to think deeper, live better has gotten in my way in the past in a way I want it never to get in my way again in the future, but it’s still there. This time, however, I can notice it for what it is, see what’s it’s trying to make me do and politely say no thank you. Have a great day.