Last April I was in a rut. We were over a month into the pandemic and the kids never went back to school after “Spring Break.” I was suddenly responsible for my regular motherhood responsibilities AND also was helping facilitate online kindergarten. My older three kids were doing pretty well but my three year old was, well, still a three year old. You all know what I’m talking about. We all lived it. And to some extent we are still living it. Life has definitely not gone back to “normal” and I wonder if it ever will.
Needless to say, I was struggling emotionally and mentally. But then again, I had been struggling emotionally and mentally my whole life. And even though I had managed to pull my life together and create a beautiful family, I was still suffering mentally and looking for relief. I had been to all sorts of professionals for help and was very devoted to my faith. I had made some great strides over the years and I had a lot to be thankful for but something was still missing. I had begun to think that maybe life was as good as it could get and I would often find myself thinking I should just be grateful for how far I had come and try to be content.
Lucky for me, I have some amazing people in my life and one of my very best friends suggested I join her in an online program called “Be Bold” by Jody Moore. I was familiar with Jody and had listened to her podcast a few times but I was not convinced that this program was going to really make a difference. But I am also one who is willing to try new things and so I agreed to sign up. It sounds so cliche’ and I totally get that but what happened next was absolutely life changing for me!!
It didn’t happen overnight and it definitely is never going to be “finished” but the concepts that I began to learn resonated with me and I soon realized that this online program was exactly what I had been looking for and needing my whole life. This Jody Moore was on to something and I could not stop listening and absorbing the material.
I knew very early on that I wanted to share these concepts with others that were suffering too. I had no idea what that would look like, I just knew it was causing my soul to stir in a way that it had never done before. I had been given a very valuable gift and it was becoming my passion and desire to share it with others. All I could think about and talk about was Jody Moore and the concepts I was learning.
I became completely consumed with this new way of thinking and managing my brain and began to experience a personal transformation. Life was beginning to make sense and I was able to feel empowered by my life experiences instead of victimized by them. I was starting to feel a major shift in mental energy and it was beautiful and refreshing. And the best part was, I was totally in control of it! I was no longer a victim of my circumstances!!
After much pondering and thinking, I woke up one day and found the Local Moms Network. I was thrilled to be able to start one in the Shawnee Area. I still don’t know what that totally looks like but I do know that I want to share these concepts with anyone looking for similar relief. So, if that is you, I hope that sharing these tools with you will have a positive impact on your life and you’ll follow along as I embark on this journey to become a life coach. (Full disclosure, I am not yet certified but feel the need to share my personal experience with those that are interested.)
So let’s dive in! The first concept that helped me is that life is 50/50. 50% positive emotion and 50% negative emotion. I don’t think that is a real surprise! This life is full of all sorts of emotions. Good and bad. And, if you’re like me you seek after the positive emotions and try to avoid the negative emotions. And this is completely normal. Our brains are designed to protect us, keep us alive and seek pleasure. However, we have to learn to appropriately manage our brains, not let our brains manage us. It doesn’t serve us well to walk around with our brains on default. We aren’t supposed to always feel happy. There are times when we will HAVE to feel negative emotions. For example, when a loved one dies, we feel sad and that is totally normal and acceptable. What gets us in trouble is when we try to constantly resist feeling the negative emotion. We do this in all sorts of ways, and I will get into that later. But for now it is important to remember and recognize that this life is 50/50. In order to experience the joy, love and hope that comes from positive emotions, we also have to experience the sadness, aversion and despair that comes from negative emotions. For me this was the best news. This meant that it was totally okay and normal for me to feel negative emotions. Because I had definitely felt them throughout my life. I was completely normal and there was NOTHING wrong with me!!! I was experiencing life. I was living a human experience and for the first time in my life, I was starting to think that maybe it was all exactly how it was supposed to be.
