💬 Weekly Discussion: Finding satisfaction when dissatisfied
I felt inspired to open up a discussion with each of you — to share how we are processing with one another. You never know how your experience might help someone else’s.
After the turmoil of last week, many of us are feeling the need for a little extra kindness and self-compassion. Times of uncertainty can make it even more important to find steady ground within ourselves—to embrace a gentler, more understanding approach to how we treat our bodies and nourish our well-being.
Last week
and of hosted a last-minute gathering for its community of women midlife writers to talk and process the events of the week. Some 30 women joined that call and shared where they were at and how they were doing. It felt so good to be among women who shared many of my same feelings, worries and fears.
I felt inspired to open up a discussion with each of you — to share how we are processing with one another. You never know how your experience might help someone else’s.
So with that, tell us in the comments
How do you find or create satisfaction when you're dissatisfied with circumstances outside of your control? Do you turn to things like reading, meditating, or working out? Or do you have creature comforts you gravitate toward to help you through?
I’ll see you in the comments!
These discussions are a place where we as community can support and lift one another up.
I'm doing all the things I typically do for self-care, including hiking, baths, bike rides, and extra cuddles with my fur babies. Still, the big one is deliberately not bottling up what I'm feeling and sharing it with others, which is relatively new for me and not something I would have ever done before or after an election.
I've been trying to show myself more compassion by allowing my emotions to be—acknowledging each feeling as it comes without bottling it up or needing to fix it. Yesterday, I sent my husband a text that said, "I'm really, really depressed about this election still."
It was a small moment of honesty, but it felt freeing to put those feelings into words, safely, instead of pushing them aside.
I've come to the understanding that I can't change the external situation, but I can be the best me I can be given it. Wha does that mean? I don't know yet! Maybe it's being kinder and reaching out to people more in general, maybe supporting things I believe in more directly. And as you say, letting my emotions be what they are in the moment and expressing them - sometimes they are very scared, sometimes very angry, sometimes very sad.