Living With Chaos: Do This!

Time to read:

Cuz I love making them so much, here's another custom charm bracelet I made for a 10-year-old's birthday.

Welcome to week 4 of Living with Chaos. Anyone who wants practical advice for living with chaos can join here.

Remember week one…You Have No Control?

To find peace and live with chaos, you must accept it. Acceptance is not support, acquiesce, being a doormat, or powerlessness. In fact, acceptance is a powerful choice because it puts ownership back in your hands.

Here is another of my favorite sayings: Circumstances do not cause your suffering.Your resistance to your circumstances causes your suffering. Let me be clear. Losing your job is painful. A death is painful. Instability of any kind hurts. Getting cancer sucks.

The first step to having agency in situations like those is to accept them. When you resist reality, you give your power to the layoff, death, instability, or cancer. You want to pull your power back to you because you're gonna need it to feel your feelings, care for yourself, and make decisions.

Acceptance can hurt because often the things you have to accept are things you do not like. Buddhists say, "more pain, less suffering."

Check it out, we're circling back to feel your feelings. All these strategies are connected! (smily face)

Living With Chaos: The Touchy Feely Part

Time to read: 50 seconds

Custom charm bracelets!

Welcome to week 3 of Living with Chaos. If you are enjoying this series, please share it with your people. They can join here.

If you hate the f-word (feelings), keep reading. You need this.

Chaos breeds feelings. You get a new boss, you have feelings. Your child decides not to go to college, you have feelings. Your sister gets a scary test result, you have feelings.

The first strategy for living in chaos is to feel your feelings. This doesn't mean wallow forever or yell at other people. Feeling your emotions is for you, alone, to recognize and acknowledge your reaction to the chaos and how you feel.

Feelings are like weather. They move through 24/7. Sometimes emotions are sunny and warm and sometimes they are a thunderstorm. You are responsible to move your feelings through so they don't become stuck. If you don't, they come out sideways…flipping off someone in traffic or yelling at the barista, your child, or a co-worker. Then you have a mess to deal with which adds to the chaos.

So, take ownership of your feelings. Cry on the drive home. Take an evening to journal. Talk to a friend. Stomp around your basement. Do what works for you to allow your feelings to move through. That will help quiet the chaos.

Next week, another strategy for living with chaos.