Be Kinder Than You Feel

I picked a few coasters with some inspirational sayings on them this summer on a fun shopping trip with my girlfriends. “Always be kinder than you feel” is on the top of the pile and it has been a good reminder to me in my post election blues. I have to admit that parts of me don’t want to be kind at all.

In my fear I’ve noticed an anger that boils and seethes at moments.

I have to be very mindful of my thinking and work awfully hard to redirect my thoughts to what is going on right in front of me. And I have really struggled at times with this I must admit.

It is so easy to get all caught up in my thinking to rest there not in tune to what I am actually doing.

It’s like I am blind, oblivious to my actions and movements and just going through the motions. My focus is in my head. And I get all worked up emotionally.

There has been a violence in my heart that comes from the powerlessness that I feel.

I understand some of the dynamics involved when rage leads to violence when an injustice is deeply experienced. This has been a new awareness for me. It is far from pretty, far from nice, far from kind too.

It is however just my thoughts rattling around running amok in my brain that capture my heart and sadden me deeply. And in deed it is just my thoughts. I am doing this to me.

Yes, it is hard for me to make sense out of what the citizens of this country have just done. But it is done and I can’t change that reality. All the thinking in the world I do won’t change that fact. All the anger I feel won’t change that fact.

I do however have a choice in how I want this day to progress. I can spend it up in my head and be miserable or I can focus on each moment, each step, each breath, and each task I do and be grateful for what it is that I have too.

This choice I do have too…always be kinder than I feel!

What are you doing to productively direct your post election blues?