It's Monday morning and my day to start making 120 more videos for provider training.
On a rational level, they are not that hard to do, but my emotional brain isn't cooperating. I am stalled and for whatever reason, I don't feel like processing my emotions.
A little inspiration would help!
What do I need? It's biological. It's to dig deep into the emotional brain and activate a Resilient Circuit. It will gleefully shuttle electricity and chemicals through my brain and body and transform me into a creative force that can't wait to make those videos!
I need a Joy Point.
One of the EBT techniques for creating joy is to bring up a happy memory. I'm post-child-rearing and experienced the latter as the most magical time of life...such as reading my children books, with them sitting on my lap.
Activating a joy memory
I activated a memory of my daughter sitting on my lap. We were reading one of our favorites: Noisy Nora. It is a story about a little girl and begins, "Jack had dinner early, Father played with Kate, Jack needed burping, so Nora had to wait."
The climax comes when Nora starts sharing her feelings or, at least, expressing them: "First she banged the windows, then she slammed the door, then she spilled her sister's marbles on the kitchen floor."
Somehow that victory was a triumph for all humankind! We always burst into laughter and cheered Nora on!
That memory – a few lines with an image of reading them to my daughter – immediately put me in rapture. The chemicals of dopamine and endorphins surged through my body.
Lighting up my life
I could see beyond my current circumstances and feel grateful for a particular kind of happiness that will never come again. I will never have small children of my own again or the magic of being a Mom to little ones.
Yet the memories are still real.
They are biological in the circuits living in my brain, and they can nourish my spirit even now. All I have to do is activate them and feel the glow.
There is a certain security in knowing that!