Does My Butt Look Big From Here???

In talking to my friends and seeing postings on social media sites, I’m noticing that so many of us are overwhelmed with work, life, parenting, etc. It’s no wonder. A challenging financial landscape, more work, more media stimulation with less of an ability to ingest and comprehend, less help, more debt, less quality time with family and less enthusiasm for following dreams are just some of the factors that are strangling the peace and tranquility out of us.

With so much bombarding an individual, sticking your head in the sand can be a really tempting option. It’s a tactic I’ve employed often.  I’m a fan of talk therapy as a way to address life’s stressors in a safe, therapeutic and hopeful empowering environment. My therapy sessions were the best and worst 45 minutes of my week. Sometimes painful stuff came up. Dealing with it was challenging because I’d rather ignore anything that makes me feel sad, bad, guilty, inadequate, un-loveable (feel free to insert any negative adjective).

The great days were when I was able to articulate what was going on in my life, evaluate it in a healthy manner and choose a positive course of action. There were plenty of days in between. One of those days my therapist asked me a simple question. I don’t even remember what it was but at the time I guess I didn’t want to address the issue. She asked if I was putting it in, “the landfill” with the other stuff that was too overwhelming to deal with at the moment. WOW! The landfill? What an image that conjured up in my brain.

If you’ve never seen a landfill, you should check one out. I know them to be mountains upon mountains of trash. That’s what I was doing. By putting my head in the sand (with my butt way up in the air) I was avoiding all the negatives…for the moment. Avoiding the issues didn’t make them go away, it just made them pile up. The collateral damage of my landfill is widespread. I will be undoing the effects of this behavior for years if I don’t cut it out.

I bet if I spent time upright handling my stuff, rather than with my head in the sand, my butt would be much happier and healthier. Each day I have an opportunity to wake up, check into my life and start dealing with the stuff in my landfill.

Here’s hoping today is a landfill day.