Shake it out

I saw an Instagram Reel last week about how if an animal escapes a predator attack, it will stand still and shake the trauma from its body for up to 15 minutes. It just stands there and shakes.

Since I watched that Reel, I’ve been shaking a lot.

There’s a saying about how if you’re going through something hard, it means you have what it takes to get through it. Maybe it was the Bible? Oprah? Tom Hanks? The patchouli-smelling checkout person at the health food store? Whoever said it, I’m making my brain think it over and over.

Last week, during a particularly hard moment, I Googled “how to get through really hard times.” I found a pictorial diagram with something about positivity and mindset. I’m all for mindset shifts and positivity, but that’s something that usually comes later, not when you’re right in the thick of it. I rolled my eyes, closed my laptop, and started shaking in place.

Life just really sucks sometimes. And I guess the thing that has helped me the most is to allow it to suck while making the best choices I can and reminding myself it won’t always be so hard. And now I’ve added the whole shaking thing into my routine, so my “how to get through really hard shit” toolbelt feels pretty solid most days.

When we’re feeling bad, we so desperately want to feel something different. Of course we do. But if we open our hearts, open our minds, and call on our strength, we can stay with the feeling, make room for it, allow it, and accept what it is to be fully human in that moment. Then shake it out and make the next best choice.

It’s not magic.
There is no magic solution to making life not suck.
Life has no obligation to make sense to us or be to our liking all the time.
We just have to get through it as best we can.

Hang in there, it won’t always be so hard, you magnificent human (yes, you are magnificent).

Wishing you a happy weekend. May you get through the suck.

Molly