Surrender to the Grrr

photo by Orin Zebest

In this week's podcast Shann shares some coping skills for the days when you wake up with a growl:

From the moment I rolled out of bed it was a challenging day. Vivid dreams about having brain surgery by a former colleague poking around in my brain with chopsticks didn't help matters. I began the day growling. The kind of Grrr you can't explain. It takes over and wants all of your attention.

Stress and low-level anger filled my every breath. I was feeling immense pressure from my inner critic and everything appeared to be spiraling out of control. I was thankful for knowing how to ground my breath and care for myself. And eventually found my way back to center.

How do you behave when you get your growl on?

I like to mutter slanderous comments under my breath or judge random people for poor driving skills. Often I begin cleaning every inch of my living space.

Here are few suggestions to support you when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Allow yourself to freak out for a full hour. Let your inner critic go wild with judgement, anger and madness. Just let your mood be what it is for a moment and then you can invite the inner-crazy to move on.  You will find that the Grrr falls away when you allow yourself to purge your emotions.

Humor is also a great help. It can be amusing to witness your bad-ass, warrior self spinning out. By simply witnessing your own bad mood you can naturally see how silly it is to be so ticked off at the world.

Another helpful tip is to call a good friend and ask for permission to go stark raving lunatic mad for 5 minutes without interruption, feedback or solutions. Then buy her a pint or some flowers to say thanks for listening.  I promise this will lead to much laughter about your tirade of silliness.

After you move through the darkness of your emotions, the best thing you can do is breathe and smile whilst remembering that you are bright, intelligent, tenacious, caring and honorable.