Emotional Snow Day

What struck me this morning was the news...  New York City cancelled school today apparently it was something like the seventh time in over 30 years...  I never realized how Spartan they were - but it does make sense...  I remember growing up tons of snow days, praying for snow days, trying to convince my parents school was wrong and I should have a snow day...  lots of memories...  lots of fun... 

Now, not so much...  snow just gets in the way... pretty to look at... a work out to shovel and the general misery of trying to make it all work...  but that got me thinking, its a shame that we can't call out emotional snow days...  you know those days where you are overwhelmed or very (insert your very favorite emotion here) and happily report to whomever you have to report to that a blizzard of emotions has made your mind have a delay that day...  there's a 50/50 chance you'll make it in or better yet the roads are closed and a state of emergency has been declared and you will see them tomorrow...  Now I know people call this a mental health day but I like the ring of emotional blizzard...  a little higher on the drama scale but probably more accurate...

We all have those blizzards of emotions, yours truly included, and on this road I am journeying I have made it a point to listen for these forecasts and more importantly respect them.  A friend of mine gave me a great quote that sums it all up...  Albert Camus wrote, "in the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."  I couldn't agree more... and have adopted this as part of my mantra.

I would say over the last year my emotions have been through a very long winter...  My Id, Ego and Super Ego all have scarves, gloves and warm wooly hats... and only recently have they been seeing signs of spring.

I think best when I am forced to do a singular activity and shoveling is not the greatest for multitaskers.  Too many moving parts and concentration required...  So it could explain why I like to shovel cause it gives me room to think.  I was thinking specifically about some comments made by a very important figure in my life and how she was talking about acceptance.  That conversation set off all sorts of warnings in my internal National Emotional Weather Forecast System, as a storm was brewing in my hypothalamus. 

Ok kids, here's today's lesson: The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that is responsible for regulating your hunger, thirst, response to pain, levels of pleasure, anger and aggressive behavior, and more.  It also regulates the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which in turn means it regulates things like pulse, blood pressure, and breathing in response to emotional circumstances. (You all thought I was just a pretty face - LOL)

With the warnings posted my mind set about the appropriate countermeasures to prepare for the storm.  That response is new for me - as I usually just slug right through things to "get them done."

Here's what I found - while shoveling 17" inches of snow - Acceptance is a key factor in my life...  According to Wikipedia, acceptance is "a person's agreement to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit."  My first instinct is always, haven't I been doing that already?  Well the answer is no...  I found that in my mind acceptance lies buried in ice and snow, a result of the abhorrently long emotional winter, or at least it did...  But something remarkable happened today while shoveling... I chipped away at my emotional ice (and hundreds of pounds of real wet heavy snow) and was able to thaw out that emotion and bring it into the sunlight...  and begin the process of understanding it and using it... not a big deal to the lucky few, but for a large number of us, I believe a major hurdle... 

Forget the ground hog, the big three of my mind are rejoicing that I have not seen my shadow and that emotional spring is right around the corner... NOTE: We can only hope for that here on planet earth too...

I have to say it gives me hope when these moments pop into my life and it made shoveling far more interesting and exciting... and I now know I live for those types of moments... and they inspire me to move toward being a far better person...

I believe as this snowy winter moves along, my emotions and my shovel are getting ready and well on their way to an invincible summer...