Whirlwind

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Happy Monday!
I am tired.
I heard this statement said to me more times last week than usual. I spoke to people who are tired physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and for good reasons.
Welcome to the reality of the whirlwind.
Whirlwind is what we call our day to day activities that consumes most of our energy. The whirlwind could snatch from us energy that we could otherwise put into more directed, intentional goals.
Don't we know the whirlwind all too well?
Physical Whirlwind: Our daily tasks, commute, household obligations, office work.
Mental Whirlwind: Our worries, self-doubt, regrets, dreams that we feel helpless to pursue.
Emotional Whirlwind: Our problems, our yearnings for events and people we have little influence in, our emotional needs, our feeling of hurt
Spiritual Whirlwind: Despair, guilt, spiritual dryness
All of these are life's realities and they all seem urgent and important. In some cases, we may not have direct influence on changing them.
However, we could change our response to them so that we do not get overwhelmed, taken over, feel hopeless or tired.
1. Acceptance. In most cases, despite these being realities of life, we struggle because we fight it. We do not want to accept them as they are. The energy we put into denying the fact that some people or circumstances exist in our lives takes up so much energy that we could otherwise direct towards dealing with them. Acceptance then saves us energy. It opens our mind to move past fighting them towards dealing with them.
2. Get down to the drawing board. Write down everything that overwhelms you at the moment. When I write things down, they take on a form that is more "controllable" to me. I get to define them and see them outside my head in a form that looks manageable. If they are too many, I categorize, prioritize, organize them in such a way I could understand and better yet "undertake" them.
3. Choose to fight one battle at a time. In reality, all four (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) are more related to each other than we think. Tackle one and the others become lighter. It is important to take a deep breath and say, this is all I can do now and it is enough. Starting at any point is better than feeling helpless to start at all.
4. Give time. Rise above your whirlwind and give yourself time to deal with your chosen battle. If you do not set aside the time to do what it takes to tackle it (rest, exercise, pray, learn, talk, delegate etc), we get back trapped in our whirlwind and we are back where we started.
I know it is easier said than done. However, it is also true that our realities are byproducts of our decisions. I invite you to look into your realities now and ask, " Can one decision I make today improve my reality?" . Your answer might just change your week, your life.
May we all have the courage to face our whirlwinds this week friends!

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