The first few days of this week were pretty rough for me and I was super tired by Tuesday night. I talked to a few friends before going to bed and they both gave me a lot of good things to keep in mind that I just wasn’t ready for. On some level, I knew that what they were saying was correct but I wasn’t in any position to apply it that day. I wasn’t even willing to use the life hacks that I talk so much about on this blog. I didn’t do any deep breathing, meditate, or listen to anything encouraging on YouTube. I just marinated in my feelings. Yesterday, I felt much better and did a lot of stuff that I didn’t do the day before. Among other things, I meditated, did breath work, stretched, went to the gym, read a lot, and juggled for a minute or two (plus I had the day off work, which is always nice). Needless to say, Wednesday was a much better day for me than either of the previous two days, and as of today I still feel better than I did earlier in the week.
There is a lot of value in the stuff my friends told me Tuesday night as well as in the life hacks I’ve been collecting for a few years now. However, even though I wasn’t in the mood to use what they told me that night, I was still able to receive it at the time and use it the next day; it stuck with me despite how I was feeling. I think it also helped that I spent a lot of time on Tuesday fully feeling my emotions instead of trying to push them away or bury them. That made me feel better and made it easier to use my life hacks on Wednesday.
It’s worth continuing to learn, study, and find useful things. Even though I’m not always ready to use what I’ve learned right away, there will come a time when I am ready, so it helps to have it available when that time arrives. I don’t always understand something until I’ve heard a few people discuss it from different angles, and I often learn something from one person that allows me to make sense of what I’ve heard from another. I’ve found that out through many of the books that I’ve read. Reading several books on similar subjects really helps me understand and remember the material. For example, reading The Righteous Mind last year made it much easier for me to understand Thinking, Fast and Slow this year as both books discuss the same basic concepts. So I’m going to keep learning, studying, and collecting information because I never know when I’ll be ready to use it and how it will help me when I need it.