Here be two edifying vids. One, external and political and the other, internal and psychological.
The first is 85 year old pensioner, Vilma Ward, giving it to smirking and revolting Prime Minister and part-time comedian Tony Abbott. Nice seeing someone serving up some truth to this nasty man on national TV: Especially when it's a plucky and feisty older woman. Rock on, Vilma.
The second is a fascinating TED talk on stress, by psychologist Kelly McGonigal. She discusses a study's findings that our belief about stress is linked to how it affects us physically. Reframing stress in our minds from a negative - like reframing anything else that we close ourselves off against - reframes it in our bodies as well.
I'm in the process of reframing my hardcore beliefs about stress and what I can cope with in the hope that my body will follow suit. It needs to because the financial noose tightens here. Not much transcription work and many encouraging rejection emails on the writing front equal real worries when your partner is also facing his own potential job-loss worries.
I persist with my idealistic thoughts that roam along the lines of "But it doesn't even need to be like this! Money is a essentially a construct, invented out of thin air. It is meant to be a method of exchange of our services, a tool that makes society function easier. In the end it's become a tool keeping you and me frozen into place."
If only idealistic thoughts put food on table and paid bills. I guess despite whatever happens on the outside, I feel rich on the inside. For what that's worth.
Newer
Older
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I won’t even begin to discuss this moronic, homophobic, misogynistic, ageist “leader” we currently have.
ReplyDeleteAll I will say is, that I hope his term is short.
The problem is, another devil will always take his place at the helm. And, to be honest, we should be looking past this face man, to the faceless men… who are the real worry.
As for stress. I believe our emotions, chemical responses etc. are ours to deal with. There’s a reason we have them.
It can’t always be sunshine and roses in our lives. “Stress” is inevitable. We need to learn how to work with it (hopefully) to our advantage, as this little gem of a video shows :)
I agree that money should be a, “method of exchange of our services, a tool that makes society function easier”. Sadly, there is an imbalanced amount of (read, few) people who have far more tools in their shed than the rest of us.
Sending you positive wishes during these hard financial times. They’re never easy. It’s hard to see the light sometimes. But, I believe you have great resilience, and that you feel rich on the inside is a great way to be.
Thanks. I wish you were right about the resilience bit. I would be maybe able to be more resilient if there was a greater level of security coming from outside but I've given up on that happening. It's everyone in it for themselves and if you're struggling, well, deal with it. The Joe Hockey way of dealing with complex situations - blame everyone. There is no system of affect that sucks people under, apparently, just willpower or it's lack. Struggling? Your fault. Deal. End of story
DeleteWe watched the Kelly McGonigal video in one of my classes this week. Ironic. I'm really working on self-compassion and self-forgiveness right now. I am soooo hard on myself.
ReplyDeleteCase in point: yesterday I had an interview for my Sept 2014-June 2015 practicum (internship) placement. This is the last big piece of my education.
So I prepped well for the interview and felt like it would be pretty straightforward. But, during the interview based on their (it was two women) body language and my their responses to my responses to their questions, I had a feeling it was not going well. It felt like they were fishing for answers I wasn't equipped to give. Like I was just all wrong for them. I walked out shaking my head, and got in my car, drove away, then parked and cried in my car at a fast food restaurant. I was entirely sure I had somehow failed. I went over all the conversation in my head and could see nothing but my terrible mistakes. I drove home and cried some more. Told my husband, and texted a good friend, told them all the things I was sure were wrong with what had happened and how horrible I am. Then I sat on my deck and fretted about how terrible of an interviewee I am, how hopeless, how unskilled, etc. (As an aside, none of this reaction was hormonal in nature. :)
TWO HOURS later, I received an email offering me the position.
What the hell is wrong with me? This is what I mean. I could have walked away feeling maybe like it hadn't gone well, but berating myself over it? What is that? Even if things hadn't turned out well, it could have been any number of things...maybe they could have been searching for something specific, but that wouldn't mean there was anything wrong with me. They could have just been having a rough day at the agency so their body language was difficult to read. It could have been that my responses challenged them in ways they hadn't expected.
But noooooo, it would've been all my fault. Ugh.
Anyhow, I'm super excited about this placement...super duper. I'll be working with women who have experienced domestic violence to help them achieve financial stability. I feel like I'm such an excellent fit for this...
Oh, wow, that sounds like a fantastic fit for you. Awesome. Well done! :)
DeleteI was wondering while I was reading this whether they were purposefully testing you by making sure they had crappy body language to see how well you held up under pressure. I don't know if that's true, but it's just what I was wondering as I was reading.
But even if not - ugh. This is the legacy of being female, I reckon. We still have this legacy floating around in our veins from myriad ancestors that we are not really allowed to be here. I still feel like that and boy, I look forward to the day when I've learned to channel the anger and rage I feel from that into more creative endeavours ...
You are really, really hard on yourself. I don't know about you but it's painful to realise that. Talk about internalising things. BUT I guess the positive side of it is that it means that we can develop much more soft landings for ourselves. Imagine how much more spacious it will feel just letting things be as they are without the story that goes with them, generally involving our own flaws and faults? I'm working on this. I'll get back to you in 43 years on my progress
I don't think they were testing me...it may have had to do with the fact that they had been out until the wee hours the night before at at fundraiser.
DeleteI know I'm hard on myself. I've always known it. It has to do with years of being told I wasn't ok because I'm such an introvert. It sucks.
It's a good insight to have, to know this. Some people are so extroverted that they wouldn't even be able to begin have that sort of insight.
Delete