Tuesday, July 28, 2015

July 28th, 2015 The Certainty Dynamic

July 28th, 2015 The Certainty Dynamic

I've found that maintaining a balance with my food and exercise requires that I'm mindful of my emotional and stress level balance, first. When things are going smoothly in the non-food & exercise areas of my life, I feel empowered and confident. When life throws a curve ball or two, and suddenly things aren't as harmonious--that's when my awareness level must be on the highest setting.

I've given myself quite a bunch of self-study in this area of balance. My conclusion centers around one of the basic human needs: Certainty. 

When things get bumpy and out of sorts, the first thing that goes is the comforting feeling of certainty. My deeply ingrained reaction to the loss of certainty is to replace it as quickly as possible--if not with certainty, with something that gives me the illusion of certainty. For me, obviously--it's always been food. 

Of course it's only an illusion of certainty. A bag of double cheeseburgers never gave me peaceful certainty in the middle of turbulent times. It only gave me an illusion of certainty within the amount of time it successfully distracted me from the reality at hand. After the distraction, the uncertainty remained--but worse; compounded with self-loathing over the binge.

One of the biggest realizations for me was found in taking responsibility for my part in creating uncertainties. It's the, my own worst enemy deal. I don't create every uncertainty in my life, but I've certainly been responsible for a good share. Being mindful of my behavior and actions and how they can potentially upset my balance of certainty is a critical awareness to maintain each and every day.  

Nobody is immune to this certainty dynamic. How does anyone like me get through the loss or weakened state of certainty without taking a tour of every drive-through in the area?

In my opinion, it comes down to the ability to compartmentalize certainty. And doing that requires taking a personal inventory of things we're grateful for in our lives. In this exploration--this inventory, we can find certainty where we weren't looking. And then we can believe that all is not lost, because we have something, several things, perhaps, that are certain in our lives. Instead of feeling like everything is total chaos--we can find peace in some areas and that helps us deal with the uncertainty in other areas. 

My gratitude list is long and that helps my uncertainty list feel a little shorter.

There have been issues lately. Issues upsetting the balance of my certainty. Much of this involves others, very close to me, so it's not appropriate for me to explore in these public writings. The wonderful thing is, many of us are working together to handle what we can and insure focus is where it's needed most. I'm grateful for that. All is not lost. 

I've written before about the importance of keeping my life stream and fundamental elements stream running parallel and not letting them cross. Losing certainty in certain areas can create turbulence within the streams. When the forces of uncertainty are pressed and we're holding our fundamental elements stream steady, it's not easy. Dropping the fundamental elements stream, effectively allowing the life stream to come crashing down across, might seem like a very natural thing to do--and considering the circumstances we sometimes experience, it might also seem completely excusable.

But why would I drop something I'm immensely grateful for having in my life, especially in exchange for the chaos and uncertainty of whatever we're passing through at the moment? 

In keeping steady the things for which I'm most grateful and finding the certainty in the things I can, it will only help me in dealing with the uncertainty of most anything else. The illusions of the contrary will not fool me into believing otherwise.

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Today was very good. My food was delicious. My omelet was ugly. I ran out of cooking spray in the employee kitchen. Non-stick cooking spray or real butter, is imperative to perfectly loose omelets. I had neither. But I made it work. It was basically a pile of scrambled eggs with avocado. Still delicious!

I managed to get a short nap this afternoon, some good coffee afterward--a great dinner before my Tuesday night conference call support group I co-facilitate with Life Coach Gerri and a fantastic workout tonight at the YMCA. I hit my water goal, too. It was, by many accounts, a solid day.

Tomorrow I'm off from radio. I'll be picking up mom early for an eye procedure in Oklahoma City. We'll be spending the day together. Despite the eye surgery, we're both looking forward to spending time with one another. We always have a great time.

A colleague shared her fresh cherries with me at lunch. I've heard cherries have some incredible health benefits and these today were incredible. I've shied away from them over the high price. I may look for bargains and find a way to include these occasionally. Even with the pits, they were still very enjoyable...kind of like life, huh?

My Tweets Today:






















Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean
at

3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 29, 2015 at 4:58 AM

    Good post. It's what i deal with a lot of the time and it's when I cave in. Consoling myself with high fat high calorie food seems to dull my senses. I believe it's a skill I learned even as a child when I guess I wasn't able articulate what I was feeling. I believe if I can recognize what's happening when it begins then maybe I can break the cycle. For me this proves to be difficult because I'm on auto pilot to react a certain way. I do want to reroute my brain to think differently. I keep seeing this little phrase lately, "it's just a bad day not a bad life"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sean AndersonJuly 29, 2015 at 11:22 PM

      Robin, I agree 100% that we absolutely develop these instincts very early. Awareness is critical--support is imperative. I love that phrase!

      Delete
  2. UnknownAugust 1, 2015 at 3:13 AM

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    ReplyDelete

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