If All Else Fails, There's Always Cake
Dear Friend,
Yesterday was a bit of a day. Some challenging things presented themselves and while I knew things would be OK, I just had that overwhelming feeling of fatigue. It was as though my entire being was like, “I’m done. I don’t want to deal right now.” Have you ever been in that headspace?
Instead of trying to fight it, I allowed myself to inhabit that space until I knew I was ready to move to the next moment. Now I need to be honest, normally I’d beat myself up and try to move myself through whatever it was quickly and sometimes without really processing it all. What do you do when that is happening to you - do you allow yourself to be in it or shove it down and press on? This time, I gave myself space to be fully in it and it was a good thing. It felt like I was actually caring for myself.
When my mood started to pick up, I still had this restless energy in me. I find that in those moments, a walk is good but it was cold so I decided to use my hands. Words were still escaping me so I wasn’t ready to journal but I decided to grab some glittery tape (it was on the table in front of me and caught my attention) and just started to put it down on my sketchbook page. I had no intentions. I crumpled pieces, put some down and took them up again. To be honest, there was something soothing about ripping the pieces and having them stick. Slowly I began to notice it looked like I was building a cake and something about that tickled me. I’m a fan of cake and chocolate and all sorts of yummy treats - I must admit - but I hadn’t intended to make one. Cake brought up memories of gatherings and I found myself enjoying the memories which in turn lifted my spirits even more. What would you have made with the tape? How do you lift your mood when you are down?
When things get tough and we shove them down and try to suppress thoughts and feelings, we not only miss the opportunities to show ourselves care and love; we miss the gifts, the things we are meant to learn. Moving that energy around, transforming it with my hands allowed me to not only learn more about what I need to care for myself, it allowed me to change my mood and inevitably, my interactions with others. I learned that sometimes instead of letting the layers of annoyance build, I can turn them into something that makes me feel better - like cake.
Love,
Natasha