Sometimes it is good to wallow and if you are a hippo then your perspective on wallowing is sheer heaven. I have been asked a lot recently why I haven’t written any blogs over the last few weeks and to be honest the reason is that I have been feeling very down with all this rain.
As a life coach I always feel I need to project an image of positivity and always looking for the best perspective on things. After weeks of relentless rain I was struggling with both my positivity and my perspective – although I have to admit my lawn is sporting a fantastic shade of bright green, but even that hasn’t been enough to lift my spirits.
While talking to a friend this last week, she said I should write a blog about how I am feeling. I thought it might be seen as negative and then I realised that there is a lot to be said for sharing how one feels and that it is ok, even for a life coach, to feel down about life.
One of the powerful aspects of life coaching is that it allows you to acknowledge where you are in your life without any judgement, and to give yourself permission to be with your emotions and not fight them. We wouldn’t be human if we were always happy and laughing. We need to experience the dark times and the tears to get a balance.
Once I allowed myself to acknowledge the fact that I wasn’t feeling great, I was able to be honest when someone asked me how I was and I told them I was miserable. They almost seemed relieved because they were also feeling down about the weather, so we both reminisced about sunshine and how we need to book a holiday.
After I had given myself permission to be miserable I felt like I had taken the pressure off, and the ironic thing was that it wasn’t long before I started to feel good again – and the most bizarre part was that the sun came out.
I hope this blog will help you to give yourself permission to allow yourself to sometimes just be with an emotion. If that is considered a negative one, then just acknowledge it and for that period be in the perspective of a hippo. Draw comfort from the fact we all have the inner resources we need to pick ourselves up and when we do the sun will shine again….
Here’s hoping for a good summer.
Lovely message from your heart Hilbre and may the sun-shine lighten up your days now… Enjoy the freedom that letting your guard down brings you. I too, am working on this one ! 🙂
Thank you Di for your reply and I have to say it has been very interesting to see the responses I have received from so many people – many in emails and even some phone calls. The responses were primarily ones of relief that they could also be honest as to how they have been feeling.
I definitely get the sense that people feel pressurised to always put on a brave front – even with our closest friends and family. I wonder what communication would be like if we were all a bit more open and honest as to what was really going on in our lives…