Taking Care of Business

I've been blessed to have Grant as my therapist as I navigate life over the past year.  I've always been skeptical of therapists, and while that is still the case, I do believe therapy as a concept is critically important.  Grant has reinforced how valuable a good therapist is.  They are expensive, and many cannot afford therapy, but for those that can, it is worth finding a good person to bring alongside you.

Last month, as my life continued to take unexpected turns, I leaned on Grant yet again to give me perspective.  I wanted to make sure my head was on straight and thinking clearly.  When a person is in survival mode, when they are hurt, when they are overwhelmed, then they can tend to make dumber decisions than normal.  I'm on guard for this in my life. 

I have held onto something Grant told me back in December as I started my sabbatical:

Don't write an emotional check that your body cannot cash

How have I applied Grant's wisdom?  As I write bigger and bigger emotional checks, I am frequently checking on how my body feels.  I've invested time at the gym and wellness remains top of mind. I've noticed lower back pains, headaches, sleep disruption, and a painful cramp in my left calf that lingered for a week.

In 2020, I had been surprised at how well my body appeared to be holding up.  But now I'm digging deeper to make sure I'm not deceiving myself.  Our bodies keep the score.  We store emotional memories and trauma in our bodies because our minds cannot hold them.  Not only do I need to continue to detox my body, but I have to be careful how much more I shove into it.

In January, when I checked in with Grant, he had another pearl of wisdom that has stayed with me:

Take care of business

Grant wanted me to stay focused on the stuff in life that is so easy to ignore.  We get hurt and overwhelmed.  We frequently turn to behaviors to make the pain go away.  Brene Brown became famous partially because she eloquently shared this message with the world in 2010.

The truth is that I don't like some of the mundane aspects of adult life.  I tend to push these aside for the adventure.  And so, Grant yet again helped keep me on a path towards more joy.

I've been focused these past few weeks on the "business" of life.  It isn't glamorous.  It may not seem to fit into this blog series about my Costa Rican adventures.  It certainly doesn't seem to fit in with the "pirate adventures" that Alex and I so enjoy.  

But Grant is right.  We cannot just live out pirate adventures.  If we don't take care of business, then eventually it catches up with us.  And when it does, it is usually way more painful than if we would have made smaller sacrifices along the way. 

I'm seeing this play out in front of my eyes this winter.  And I'm reminded of something Chris Robinson taught me.  Years ago, he paid over $30,000 to be a part of a professional development program.  That program did little for him.  When someone suggested he wasted his money, he corrected them by saying it was simply an expensive lesson. 

I believe life gives us lots of easy opportunities to learn.  I don't believe our lives are meant to be defined by suffering.  But if we fail to learn the lessons the easy way, they keep getting more and more difficult until we eventually learn the lesson the hard way.  I use this to remind myself to look for the easy lessons in life so that I can avoid the hard ones!