Today’s email is a remix of one of my all-time favorites, originally sent one year ago. Enjoy 🙂
(FYI: Strong language in this one…)
I woke up in a whiny-a** mood today.
From the jump, my mind was tossing out complaints like a toddler who needs a talking to, so that’s what I’m gonna give myself right now.
Hopefully we’ll both learn something along the way.
For context:
I’m a little over a month into a two-month solo retreat, where I’ve stripped away most of my favorite things…
Coffee, MMA, podcasts, most books, TV shows, ~90% of the food I normally eat, and a bunch of other stuff I listed (along with details on why I’m doing this) here.
So when I woke up, and my mind started reaching for…
Coffee — nope.
UFC news — nope.
Sht, a snack? — nah, bro. Well, can I at least watch YouTube or something? — hahah. No. …And I realized all I had to look forward to was: Silence. And then more silence. For a month. …My — should I say it? — yes,Goggins would be proud — inner btch — started crying like a — well, I just said it.
”Why did you do this to me again?!”
“Seriously, again?! We just did two years of this!”
“And you want to do another six months next year?!”
“You’re a real prick, you know that buddy?”
At this point I should probably mention that this happens pretty much every time, to pretty much everyone who does this protocol.
So while I may be a prick, at least I’m not special.
And over the years, I’ve learned a cutting-edge technique that instantly transcends the noise of the mind, effortlessly transforming it into deeper power and clarity:
Telling it to shut the fck up. (told you there would be language) This little-known technique is rare in spiritual circles, where gently stroking your inner child while attuning to the inner light of the sacred heart chakra manifests a space of gratitude that generally frowns upon kicking your inner btch straight in the teeth.
But damn, it works.
Two seconds of tough love did what ten minutes of patiently listening to my whining mind couldn’t do:
Got it to stop whining, and made me feel way better.
Of course, there’s a time and place for being gentle with yourself.
But working on your “inner child” doesn’t mean letting it kick and scream and throw food on the floor just ’cause it isn’t getting what it wants.
It means being a good parent, which means (full disclosure, not a parent here) dropping some tough love, every once in a while.
Hey, I feel better now 🙂
I hope you got something out of that, too.
More tomorrow.
- T
P.S. Important point:
We’re not talking about repressing emotions, here.
We’re talking about shifting into a stronger, more determined state of mind which in turn shifts your emotional state.
The measure of effectiveness, of course, is how you feel afterwards.
If giving yourself tough love leaves you feeling stronger, more capable, more determined, etc — bueno.
If it doesn’t, change your tactic.
Or, if you wanna just cut to the chase:
You could join us here and never wake up in another whiny mood, experience another painful emotion, suffer another defeat, be served another undercooked hamburger, or stub another toe.
Ever again.
Guaranteed.
“If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.” – Greg McKeown
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