The Two Whos

Have you seen the bracelets that people wear on their wrists?  They are made out of rubber and often support a certain cause? 

Well tonight Yun and I had a very interesting conversation that I am calling  SNAP!  Like “SNAP  OUT OF IT! ”  We both had an emotional day today…some was  of our own  design and some was us dealing with other people’s  dramas. All of it created stress in our lives. It put us out of balance.  We both got into our own funks, were tired and had to try  to clarify what choices we had to either get out of the funk or sit in it.  That is when Yun brought up her bracelet.

I saw Yun wearing her bracelt over the summer.  She told me then that when she got into a funk, she would SNAP it on her wrist to remind her to SNAP OUT OF IT!  She did that for about a month and she did SNAP OUT OF IT!  

Tonight we discussed our days and realized we were both in a funk.  To me, a funk is a wrestling match that I have with myself….should I or shouldn’t I?  

Still at this moment I am having it.  My issue is that I am hungry and my stomach is growling but I have already  eaten dinner.  I have just cut my calories again, under a nutritionist’s guidance,   and I have had all the food that I want to eat….but I really feel  like eating more because I am hungry.  My wrestle is “Should I get something additional to eat…..or should I sit with the discomfort with the knowledge that I need to have a calorie deficit in order to lose weight…and  part of this is that I am going to be hungry!

I can choose to sit in the discomfort or I can soothe the discomfort with more food.  One creates discomfort and the other creates comfort.  Which will it be?    I am going to get a drink of water while I continue to decide this.  Be right back! 

Sometimes I need to take action on conflicts within myself and other times, I need to  do nothing .  This is one of those “Do Nothing moments .  SNAP!

Except, as I finsihed writing this and looked at it in edit mode….a Google ad came up to eradicate world hunger…and it made me realize that  I am not really hungry in comparison to others who are starving and have NO food to eat!  A little perspective…on my situation.

Yun says, 

Life’s small things are made in the split of second. That’s how fast our mind works.  If we are not mindful, our thoughts appear like running on the fast track.  With the mindfulness, however, our thoughts can be observed in slow motion.  You can see this side of the thought traffic as well as the traffic in another direction.  The competing thoughts are often in raging battle in our mind.  Our ability to make ‘snap’ decision on which side to join has everything to do with our life’s wellness and success.

Today, for the second morning in a row, Yun’s car would not start when she got her kids into the car.  Inside the car was very cold since her garage door is not working right, so she parks her car outside in the night.  Kids were complaining, mommy was getting really frustrated.  She let the kids back in the house, pushed the car into the garage, started to charge the car.  While she was waiting, she felt the need to scream and cry.  Self pity and frustration was creeping into her mind.  At the same time, there was a little voice in her saying: “No big deal at all.  Look at what you can do.”   She stood there, she looked at the two opposite thoughts, thinking: “Interesting, which traffic I really want to join?”   YOu see, feeling the “poor me, this is too hard”  is easy,and  ”been there done that”  many times; staying positive is a lot work to hold the uncomfortable mental tension between the habitual pattern of being and new way of being.

Yun ‘snap’ herself into the new. It is a practice she does whenever she faces the life’s little ‘snap’ decisions.  She used to actually have a real rubber band to help making the “snap’ decision.   After practicing  ‘snapping’ the rubber band on her wrist for a while, it is now more of a declaration of support cancer research than self ‘snapping’.  

More to come on this topic!