When the World Goes to Shit

I was all set to write about New Years’ resolutions, and how and why they’re kinda the worst and then…well…failed coup attempt with promises of a sequel in a couple of weeks.

So that happened. And life continued all around it.

I’ve read repeatedly that entrepreneurs (like me!) have to work around the clock, and on weekends and holidays. But what about televised insurrection? Is taking the time to witness and process it all really going to be the thing that keeps my business from success?

I decided no. My husband and I took down the Christmas tree rather than try to accomplish anything more ambitious. I was grateful that we were safe at home, and that everyone was evacuated before the violent mob arrived. I’m relieved that we didn’t immediately know how close we’d come to live streamed murder. If I’d known that from the beginning, I’d probably still be in bed hiding from it all.

On 9/11, I was in California for work. A colleague with insomnia saw the news early on, and woke up the rest of us. I’m from NYC and only moved away a few years ago. I knew that every single person I knew wouldn’t be alive by the end of the day. (I was extremely fortunate in that I only lost acquaintances.)

After a few hours, after the collapses, and the horror, it was 9am PDT and time to go to work. The project manager asked if we should cancel the day’s meetings. I said no because if we didn’t get all the information we needed, the big boss would make us come back and there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.

Was it the right choice? Who can say? But it’s what we did. The shock was wearing off, and phone service in NYC was down so we couldn’t check on our loved ones. The office had a better internet connection than the hotel, so we were able to contact our people in between meetings.

I can’t speak for the others, but I do think it was good that I was forced to absorb and process everything a little at a time.

I’ve used the word, “process,” a couple of times here and that’s because it’s important. To paraphrase Mr. Rogers, the world is a lot less scary when you know what to do with your emotions.

All this (picture me waving my arms around in a gesture that encompasses all of human history, but especially the recent stuff) is a lot. A lot to deal with, a lot to work around, a lot to keep track of. Yet we continue to demand a certain level of productivity from ourselves. And then we beat ourselves up for not reaching those unreasonable standards - because we didn’t already have enough on our emotional plates.

Processing events, and our thoughts and feelings about them isn’t doing nothing. It’s an important activity for our physical and mental health. Of course, if we add “cope with stuff” to our daily to-do lists, we’ll never get to it. But we could make time for specific activities such as EFT Tapping, making art, moving our bodies, etc. that help us get emotions out of our bodies. We can multitask by listening to/dancing to/ singing along to music while driving or cooking or cleaning or whatever.

We also need to give ourselves permission to tune out as needed. On January 6th, my husband & I didn’t check any media while taking down the tree. We acknowledged that us tuning out for an hour wasn’t going to affect anything but our mental health. We promptly tuned back in when we were done. That’s the difference between taking a break and burying your head in the sand.

So give yourself a break when you need one. Go easy on yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Coping with everything takes a lot out of anyone, so shorten your day’s to-do list accordingly.

If this resonates with you, leave a comment below and join the Team Accomplist FB Group.