Catastrophizing!



Life can - sometimes - be like eating a lemon!

Last year I started seeing a psychologist.  I did this for a lot of reasons ... imminent retirement; a difficult (read shit head) on my board at work;  33 years of marriage; the boat; ... it goes on and on and on.  Did she help?  Hell YES!  Psychologist listen to how YOU see issues and then help YOU to see them in a different light.  They provide strategies to help get you get your self together and to stop CATASTROPHIZING!

I love that word - Catastrophizing.  The dictionary gives this definition - to view or talk about an event or situation as worse than it actually is, or as if it were a catastrophy.

The first time my psychologist said that word to me it was a screaming ah-ha moment.  The word clarified the way I reacted to so many things .. especially sailing things and work things and marriage things - well every thing!  And, I'm sorry to say, the way I initially saw this broken foot thing.  However - and I must say I'm proud of myself - I may have 'gone there' a bit at the beginning but I'm back into reality mode now (or maybe the right phrase would be 'for' now).  I no longer see this as a catastrophy but an opportunity for all kind of things.  Enlightenment and/or education being one of them.

I decided to look beyond my usual round of reading material for new things....after all I have a good deal of free time on my hands right now.

First I started with the TED application on my tablet.  I've seen a few TED talks over the years and, while always amazed and entertained by the talented people & subjects, I never made them a habit.  The talk I found last night blew my mind!  It's been watched well over 9 Million times!  It's called The Power of Vunerability by Brene' Brown .  And it resonated with me right to the core...in relation to my current predicament but also life.  These are some of the points she made:-

• In order to be really connected - to ourselves and others - we must let ourselves be seen, truely seen.  To be vunerable.
• Love with a whole heart - even though there is no guarantee - of anything, ever.
• Practice gratitude & joy even in those moments of absolute terror - like when you're waiting for the results of a test, wondering can it be possible to love this hard or believe in something this absolutely...instead of CATASTROPHIZING!
• Believe 'I Am Enough' - and when you do that you stop screaming at the world and start listening... being kinder and more gentle to ourselves and the people around us.

I encourage you to take 20 minutes and listen to the talk.  Its funny and revealing.  You'll never spend a better 20 minutes in my view!  I'm looking forward to my next TED experience tonight.

Secondly, and they say you should never do this, I started Googling my foot injury.  The usual stuff....  How long it takes to heal.  Common complications.  Long term problems.  All the things that we, as medical morons, should not even look at or think about!   But I did discover good ideas too.  I discovered the "knit-bone herb" Comfrey is supposed to promote bone healing.  I don't think I knew about Comfrey before but Stephanie said her mother used to have it in the house all the time.  So wonderful Steph went out and, along with a number of calcium, minerals and vitamins on my shopping list she bought some Comfrey ointment.  We'll see how this bit of herbology works....if I could soak my foot in it I would.

Oh look!  It's almost wine o'clock!  More later.