Banishing the Misery Monster

Banishing the Misery Monster

Here’s a funny thing. Well, I guess it’s not really funny, it’s really kind of sad, but it’s curious, nonetheless.

When we are miserable, it’s really difficult to focus on anything outside ourselves. We tend to be preoccupied with how awful we feel, and that preoccupation fills us up. It can keep us absorbed for hours, days, and even years. One of the features of that absorption is that we don’t notice that we are absorbed. Creepy, huh. It’s like being taken over by a brain monster, and we don’t even know it.

When we are miserable, we are also often exhausted. Misery takes a ton of energy to sustain because it is against our natural life. It means that we don’t really have much juice left over to do much of anything for anyone else. Just trying to take care of our family can be too much

The habit of misery is pretty much self-perpetuating. That misery entity wants life. It is a highly toxic parasite that will consume you and destroy your life, and you may not even be aware that it’s clear-cutting your relationships, and squandering your natural resources until you are so depleted you can hardly get up.

If you are reading this, your misery has an expiration date. You may not know what it is, but if you are questioning how you live your life, you will make changes that will make things way better for you. Why do I choose to make my life nice? Why do I choose to enjoy living? Why do I choose to release my misery, and live easily and joyfully?

One way to eliminate your misery is to care about something outside yourself. Misery loves apathy. Yes, misery loves company, but it really loves apathy. When we find something to care about, even if we have to start by pretending to care, we start to loosen its hold on us. The more we can find our way back into our hearts, the more misery will shrivel.

Sometimes, just getting out to volunteer your time for an hour a week can start messing up misery’s hold on you. Heck, just getting out of the house to go for a walk around the block in the sunshine can often start to wreck it.

How have I changed from nurturing my misery to nurturing my natural life?

Every time we can choose to nurture something outside ourselves, we gain a bit of our life back. Every time we notice we are in a miserable posture, and correct it, that is, sit or stand up straight, lift our chins a bit, look up for a while, smile with eye-crinkles for a minute or so, we shift our neurochemicals onto the plus side.

Each time we catch a miserable thought and replace it with a good Creative Question, we are moving toward our natural life. Living it is easy, but sometimes getting there can take work.

Each time we remember that misery is a habit we can unchoose, we move toward our natural life.

How have I changed from choosing misery and apathy to choosing to make a difference?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 07032013