Emotional Preparedness: Check the Forecast
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” — Scandinavian saying
What if we prepared for emotionally adverse conditions in the same way that we prepare for physically adverse conditions.
If you were going to head out into a blizzard you’d likely take a moment to prepare yourself.
A quick look out the window and you’d think, “gee… it’s gross out there”, grabbing your hat, gloves and boots before even cracking open the front door.
When I’m headed into a situations where I know my emotional state is going to take a pummeling I’ll not-so-much as put on socks.
Then, to what should be no surprise, I’ll lose my shit.
I get flustered. My brain gets foggy and I can’t think straight. I’ll say things that, as-they-are-coming-out-of-my-face, I know are going to make things worse. 🤷♂️
If you like cringe comedy then you’d love being in meetings with me when someone is putting me on the spot and I’m not prepared. It’s not pretty.
This happens on repeat. I’m not adjusting my behavior to make thing better.
In the spirit of “others may also have this problem” I figured I’d share my thoughts on how this might be handled better going forward.
Here’s an attempt to not end up like Jack Nicholson in The Shining next time an emotional blizzard rips through town. 🥶
First, check the weather and recognize what’s coming
Take a moment to look at the emotional weather report.
For me, the forecast comes in the form of reviewing my calendar since most of my stormy weather is work related.
In the same way we can’t control the weather, we can’t stop the people that cause us emotional turbulence from, you know, doing the things that cause it.
But, I can predict that there’s a likelihood I’m going to feel stressed out.
The key here is to recognize the need to prepare before hand, as well as plan time to recover.
Second, prepare for the weather
Rough seas are on the horizon and we now know they’re coming. Time to prepare.
I’m trying to block time beforehand to maybe get away from my desk. Perhaps grab a snack to get my blood sugar levels up. Play some tunes that make me happy. Do something in creator mode. (Doesn’t have to be art… nailing a Notion layout I’ve been working on can scratch that itch for me 🤓)
Mindset is huge and if I can go into things in a good mood all the better.
Not everything will work, but doing something increases the chance of feeling less-horrible. Try things until you find yours. I don’t have a sure fire one yet.
Third, leave time to recover
Part of the preparation should be carving out space for recovery and decompression. We already know ahead of time that we’ll need it.
If I’m coming inside after being out in the cold I want to take a moment in front of a nice fire to wrap me in coziness.
A frustrating meeting might require a debrief (aka: venting session) with a friend. Or something physical to let the stress out (I’m partial to splitting firewood in the winter and maybe a run in the summer).
The point of this is to A) acknowledge it’s needed and B) make a plan for it.
When you’re in a stressed out state it’s hard to get a clear enough head to figure out a way to decompress from it.
We can’t control the weather… yet.
Lots of practice (and meditation and therapy) can help avoid a need for this in the first place. If you know a shortcut lemme in on it, please.
A bit of forethought can help us deal with the emotional weather we do need to deal with today.
By recognizing and preparing for incoming emotional storms, we can equip ourselves with the right tools and mindset to weather them more effectively. (See what I did there? Yeah, you did.)
Thanks for reading. I hope this is helpful to someone - it was helpful to me to write it out at least. 😁
Good luck out there my friends.
Hi-Ho!