Drop the Bags Bitch

The Emotional Roller Coaster of Life

September 04, 2024 Melinda Episode 115

Some reminders about the nature of the ups and downs in life.
This book called Peaks & Valleys has really helped me to whether the storms of life. I hope it will help you as well. 

Find out more about my work: www.melindagerdungcoaching.com

Book a session with me: https://calendly.com/gerdungmelinda/coaching-session


---
Beat Provided By https://freebeats.io
Produced By White Hot
---

hey, my friends. Right now I am in a mental health slump.My anxiety has been way higher than usual, and it's making it so I'm having trouble sleeping at night. Which sleep makes my anxiety worse. Which makes it harder to sleep. And it's like this vicious cycle. What kicked this off is that I got the results back from my dog's echocardiogram on Friday. And she's had a heart murmur for years, so she gets these routine monitoring checks to make sure that her heart doesn't get enlarged. And she seems absolutely normal. So I thought this time would go like all the other times, and they would just say like, oh, no change. We'll just keep monitoring. But this time, they came back and said that her heart disease had progressed to a much more advanced stage. There was significant enlargement of the heart, and she could go into heart failure at any time. And so she would need to start this medication to try to delay heart failure for as long as possible. It was very shocking to me. She is behaving normally, and she's only nine, like for a small dog that's not even that old. I didn't expect it, and it was a really big shock to me, and very upsetting, obviously. I don't think I've cried this much since my divorce. And I'm really trying hard not to prematurely grieve, like, yes, hearing this was a shock, but she's still here, she's still acting normally, she's taking this medication now. We're still together. But in the back of my mind it is there. Having the anxious brain that I do, is kicking my anxiety into overdrive. I'm just really not doing well. And I'm sharing this with you because I think, in the age of social media, we really only see people's ups. And it can seem like everyone else's life is going perfectly and no one else has the problems that we have. But that’s just not true. Everyone’s life has ups and downs. That is the literal nature of life. And so when you find yourself in a down, nothing has gone wrong. It’s normal. And it’s important to remember that the downs don’t last forever. This too shall pass. The ups will return. On the converse side, I have also had times where I've been in a definite up, like things are just going really great for me, and I I'll feel almost like guilty if I'm around people who things aren't going so well for at the moment. And so I'll like keep it to myself how good things are for me at the moment. Which is fine, but I just want to point out that everyone deserves their ups. We should all absolutely take our Ups when we get them and enjoy the hell out of them, because they also don't last forever. And that is the exact reason that I don't think anyone has the right to make you feel bad if things are going well for you at the moment. Because life knocks everyone down sometimes. I never resent other people their ups, even in the moments of my downs, because I know that those ups are precious and you should enjoy them while they're there. Because everyone gets dealt struggles in this life. Everyone. There are no exceptions. I don't want this to be like another point of anxiety, like, oh my god, things are going too good right now. Something bad is about to happen. My brain also does that because, hello, anxiety. But I really try not to. I really do try and make the conscious effort to enjoy the good times and really savor them. I also have this theory that it is possible to find good things to appreciate, even in the middle of a down. Maybe it's the friend who stands by you in the midst of crisis. Right now, for me, it's that I still have time to make the most of with my dog. I get to cherish her right now, and that is a beautiful thing, and that is what I'm trying to focus on right now. And so this is the reminder I want to leave you with this week, my friends. Enjoy the good times because you absolutely do deserve them and should make the most of them. And when you're in a down, remember that it won't last forever. And it is still possible to find beautiful things even in the midst of the downs. No matter what we are in the midst of, we always get to choose where our attention and our focus goes. All right, my friends, until next time. Be well.