That if we are tired, then we kind of know we're going to be short tempered. And it's true if we're sick and if we're tired that our brain does not function at its best, and we might make errors in writing. I know from myself saying words incorrectly like I'll say a word that makes no sense in a sentence. This is a thing that could really truly happen because our brain is dealing with a lot, but the choice to be irritated, to be short tempered, to be those things is just that a choice. Maybe I will continue down my journey. I'll find there's even a way not to make those I’m sick, I’m tired, and mistakes, that lack of focus, the incorrect word, somethings like that.
The choice to be that grumpy parent or that annoyed parent, I have worked on and have figured out that it is just a program because when my children come when I am sick or I am really tired and get irritated. I know that I'm telling myself stories that lead to those feelings. How am I supposed to deal with this? We ask ourselves questions and tell ourselves stories that lead to those feelings, and those stories that I was telling myself lead to those internal friction or on that internal battle. Let's express that grumpiness and that irritation, and what I'm about to tell you works if you're angry or grumpy or any of those things in any situation.
The situation I'm talking about right now just happens to be, tired or illness or those things that we might feel a little worn down physically. But just like I tell my students in class or my own children when they were younger, anger is allowed it's an emotion, it's okay to have all of our emotions. What’s less beneficial could be how we choose to act on it.
So if we take that anger, that frustration, if we take that tired in and we're battling with it, then we've created that friction and that energy to doubt them. That's what I've been told all my life, that's how I react to these feelings.
But if instead we just accept those feelings in, those feelings are part of who I am. Why am I? I am not grumpy right now. I am feeling that grumpiness, that irritation, but that's not who I am. It's just a part of what I'm experiencing. Then I can more easily, just allow that to sit with me but not respond externally to it. Yeah, I am feeling a little worn down from an illness. Whatever I've experienced staying all night with my father in the emergency room or with my infant child who is sick or any of those things. Just in my head things are going on at work or in this family situation and that's why I couldn't sleep.
It doesn't matter what the reason is, it is how we will deal it with acceptance. and just say this is something I'm experiencing right now or if it's that external. I felt this way then loud to be irritated, I'm allowed to react these ways because that's what's acceptable. And I just have it as an adult to overcome that programming. And again, I know it's not 100% universal that there are people who could be extremely tired and still keep their emotions as part of the experience rather than as a place for reaction. But I know for me at one point in my life and for others that this is a real challenge especially when it is a long term thing if we have a colicky baby, then they might be colicky for months or a year or 2, or things like that kind of, with that constant date of not quite enough rest, but then I can't just look at those emotions allow them to do it and don't fight them. It's the fighting the emotions and the acceptance of emotions is how we are expected to react that creates that struggle. So remember children are great by their very nature and we have that privilege and that opportunity and responsibility to raise them.
