“Being who you are is another way of accepting yourself.” ~Unknown
A few months ago I woke up with, what my good friend and I call, “the rage.” I was automatically annoyed by the tone of people’s emails in my inbox. I was frustrated by the lack of response from others. My tea tasted too strong. I felt cooped up in the house. Need I go on?
So, I went to the gym to increase my endorphins. I figured that a good workout would be the perfect cure-all.
It wasn’t. I left my HIIT (high intensity interval training) pleasantly exhausted but still agitated.
Then, I sat down to get into a Zen like state with my life coach. I trusted that together we could get to the bottom of whatever this wonky energy was all about.
I cried, releasing beautiful misunderstandings about current business relationships. It was an incredibly healing session, and I hung up the phone thinking that it was such a relief to know where this negative energy was coming from. But the lightness I usually experienced at the end of a session was nowhere to be found.
Instead, I felt sad and lonely.
It was in that moment, hanging up the phone from my coach that I realized, I needed to stop trying to fix my low energy day. There was no “one reason” I was feeling this way. It wasn’t anything I did or didn’t do; it just was, and it was time for me to be okay with that.
The only place I had heard of such acceptance was within my Human Design studies, so I picked up a book.
According to Human Design, most of us have what is considered to be an “emotional authority.” It means that we tend to let our emotions rule our decisions, and we can easily make rash decisions just to end the emotional turmoil we feel. Or, to the opposite extreme, we can say “yes” in an effort to hold onto an exciting expectation.
Most notably, our emotional authority is an energy that constantly moves through us in wave pattern. Sometimes the wave is up and we feel great, and sometimes the wave is down and we feel off or have low energy.
I’ve learned that the key is not to focus solely on our high-energy feelings, or to get rid of our low energy. The key as Buddha says, is for us to find “the middle way.” Release attachment to either end of the spectrum and find the still point. That is where emotional clarity lies.
Thus, on that day a few months back, I asked myself to stop pushing. I stopped pushing the negative emotions away and I stopped pushing myself into a more positive high.
Instead, I honored and acknowledged my wonky feelings in these three ways.
1. Self-pampering.
I hugged myself. I sat on the floor in my living room and circled my arms around my knees. Then, when I was ready I went out to get a hot yummy drink at the coffee shop down the street.
I let my to-do list fly out the window and I gave my body and my mind my full attention. I did a lot of journal writing that day. I like journaling when I can, and it helped me explore areas where I could really stand up for myself in my business and in my relationships.
2. The twenty-four-hour rule.
I released myself from making any big decisions. I knew my energy was all over the place and the key was to wait for clarity. Thus, I gave myself a twenty-four-hour rule. No big decisions were to be carried out or expressed until 9:00AM the next day, at the earliest.
This wonky, negative energy was here for me to explore and learn from. It was still too early to start sharing a new truth. I couldn’t expect myself to grasp my learning’s well enough to articulate them to others. Nor could I expect myself to be in a place to take feedback neutrally. Not yet, anyway.
This rule gave me the freedom to explore what I really wanted.
3. Judgment-free space.
I deemed my home, my body, and the three-foot bubble around me wherever I went to be my judgment-free space. There was nothing good or bad, right or wrong about my low energy day. It was here for me, as an amazingly imperfect human being, to experience.
This allowed me to embrace it and learn from it. It was no one’s fault. There was nothing wrong with me for feeling this way. It wasn’t going to last forever, and everyone would still love me in the morning.
When I woke up at 7:00AM the next day, I felt refreshed. The rage and negative energy were gone, and I could also see clearly how I wanted to proceed in my business relationships.
A huge sigh escaped my lips. I had allowed myself to be a part of the day’s adventure. Instead of fighting it, or allowing it to take over my life for who knows how long, I had loved my low energy.
Which of these three self-honoring actions will you try when you have a low energy, “rage” day?