Hello March 2021
Hello Dear One,
I want to tell you about a low day I had. But, before I do, let’s establish a fact: we all have them. Even the ‘perfect’ person you’re following on Instagram, the friend you think is thriving, that girl who has your dream job. Ups and downs are the human condition.
Yet so often we’re shamed into believing these emotions aren’t valid, that we can’t feel down when we lead such privileged, comfortable *insert adjective here* lives. That, my friends, is codswallop.
It took me a long time to be able to say ‘I feel low’, or ‘I’m having a low day’, both statements I find beyond helpful. When we have a great day we don’t expect everything to always be great, but somehow feeling low is scarier.
Let’s drop the judgement over what is real: the difficult, complicated, devastating, mundane, euphoric spectrum of emotions that come with having a human heartbeat. You have to feel your feelings. As Karl Jung said ~ “What you resist persists.” An easy way to turn one low day into several is to pretend everything is fine, to stuff our feelings away because they’re not convenient.
Last week I went from feeling blissful in the morning to dismal in the afternoon, a mood which carried itself over to the evening for no conscious reason. After giving myself space to feel I listed what could be bothering me. The weather was brilliant, it wasn’t that; my work was under control, it wasn’t that. It feels like last year and we’re still in lockdown. Yes: it’s that. As soon as I hit upon why I felt the way I did I could support myself. The vulnerable part of me, the terrified, traumatised part that clung on to all the hardest parts of Lockdown 1.0 and liked to shine them upwards whenever new restrictions came in to place, wanted to be heard. It wanted to warn me, to make me worry as a form of protection. However, conscious me knows nothing is the same. Practically, people are getting vaccinated; there’s a way through that we didn’t have last year. Individually, I’ve learnt so much. I’m going to be ok.
As reassurance, I repeated a phrase Christine Hassler taught in the inner child course I did last year: That was then and this is now.
We aren’t in the same place as we were a year ago. Writing down all the good things was both a balm for my soul and the factual proof our brains crave. Give it a try.
I hope it helps. It’s always revealing to gently question why certain feelings are coming up, so we’re not shooting in the dark. Take extra good care of yourself this month. I don’t know how I’m going to feel and you don’t either. But we will deal with it.
Thanks for being here and being you.
All love,
Jo
P.S. - For those of you wondering about workshops & the next round of my course.
Sometimes we need to pause. All of us. There’s a myth that if we don’t we’ll miss things. I don’t want you buy in to that, so I won’t either. I want to be sure everything works and is helpful before I release my next dates. I’ll keep you posted here and on Instagram. In the meantime, if you know someone who might like this letter why not share it.