Tag: emotions

one of the best things i’ve done for my mental health

Posted on by jplatt27
One of the best things I’ve done for my mental health in the last year is unsubscribe from the business building newsletter mailing lists I was on.
I’d read these emails and think I’m not good enough, I’m not doing enough. I don’t want to do that. I can’t do that. It just made me feel really shitty.
I knew I wasn’t going to build a successful business from that place of lack and I’m not good enough so I unsubscribed. And it made me feel a million times better.
If you’ve subscribed to something meant to be helpful and motivational but instead makes you feel small and shut down, it’s not doing it’s job and could possibly even be slowing you down from your goals.
If the dating sites are reminding you of how single you are and make you think “I’m never going to find the love of my life” take a break, don’t login for a while.
If listening to podcasts and reading articles about money make you feel hopeless and sad about your financial state, take a step back and don’t listen to those things for a bit.
If fitness pages on social media make you feel fat and inadequate, change your settings so those things don’t pop up in your news feed.
If reading blogs about positive psychology and your mindset overwhelm you, set up your reader so they’re not the first thing you see.
Step away. Unsubscribe. Funnel it into a folder where you don’t have to see it unless you choose to.
You do not deserve to feel shitty about yourself. I personally believe that you’ve got to love yourself into change. Approach it with hope, optimism, and love for the possibilities ahead.
If there are things that are coming across your screen that don’t allow you to feel good, inspired, and expanded, please, please, please, take the action necessary so they don’t come across your screen.
If they’re going to make you feel less than, get them out of your inbox.
You’ll be amazed at what mental creative energy will be opened up to you when you do.
What do you need to remove from your screen?
P.S. I sent this to my email list this morning. If you want to get things like this right in your inbox, subscribe here.

what i’m learning about sports

Posted on by jplatt27

For as long as I’ve known Mike, he’s been a huge Philadelphia sports fan. Between the Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies we’re always in-season for one of the sports. When we moved in together, one of the most notable things was how much he watches sports. If it’s not an actual game, it’s what we’ve come to call “talking about sports”: Mike and Mike, SportsCenter, Pardon the Interruption, pre- and post-game coverage. In the car we frequently stream Philly sports talk and Mike will also listen to it on his morning and evening bus rides. And though he’s normally a pretty calm, steady guy, that all goes out the window when the Flyers or Eagles are on. The hootin’ and hollerin’ is really something else. It got so bad one time, I was afraid he was going to get so riled up he was going to throw the remote or something and ruin our new TV.

So given all of this, I never really got it. And now, almost 6 years later, I get it.

Sports give you something to be a part of, something bigger than yourself. They bring commaraderie among fans, across generations, and can even bond people through mutual hatred of other teams. One of the most basic human needs is to be a part of a tribe. Being a sports fan is a great example of that.

Sports are an emotional roller coaster and allow you to feel your full range of emotions in a way that isn’t socially acceptable in many other contexts. From an amazing goal to a devastating loss, sports give you permission to openly feel and express it all – joy, anger, and sadness.

It’s home. It’s comfort. It’s the annual hope that this could finally be the year that your team, your city, wins it all.

Are you a sports fan? What about it draws you in?

link love

Posted on by jplatt27

life coaching assignment

assignments for a coaching client

I love nothing more than relaxing and reading on a Saturday morning. Here are some links for your weekend. Enjoy!

1. I love The Good Life Project by Jonathan Fields and I really enjoyed this episode.

2. As someone that had the privilege to receive this, I can totally agree that this is one of the best things you can give a friend.

3. You know how much we love Jessica’s recipes. You can bet your bottom dollar we’re buying this.

4. A four word phrase that might change your life (I definitely want to try this)

5. I love this reflection about why the writer yells at her kids.

that’s me

Posted on by jplatt27

I love when I read something and think “oh my God, that’s me.” That’s exactly how I felt when I read this passage:

“So I decided that’s what God wanted to me to do. He wanted me to walk around telling people the truth. No mask, no hiding, no pretending. That was going to be my thing. I was going to make people feel better about their insides by showing them mine. By being my real self.” ~Glennon Doyle Melton, Carrior On Warrior

I try to do this here on my blog, but also in true, honest conversations with the people I interact with on a daily basis. I want authenticity to be my thing.

Have you read anything lately that made you think that’s me? If so, share in the comments.

deep down you know

Posted on by jplatt27

You know what you want to do. Deep down part of you knows exactly what you’re going to be, what you want to do with your life. It knows. It really really knows. And it knows it will be fulfilling and you’ll be good at it. And it doesn’t worry about money because it knows the money will follow.

It’s always known.

So, tell me, or more importantly, tell yourself…what are you going to do? Who are you going to be?

to have and to hold

Posted on by jplatt27
I’m on an airplane, heading to Iowa for a friend’s wedding. There’s a little boy in front of me, maybe three years old. He’s wearing footie pajamas and it’s clear he’s getting a little restless. It’s almost 10pm. Aww, do you want to sit on my lap? I wonder. It’d be so nice to hold a little kid in my arms.

And then this big, emotional thought hits me. Someday, I could have a little boy like that. And not only will he be mine and sweet and cuddly. But he will be Mike’s. The thought of having a little Mike to hold overwhelms me, fills my body with this deep emotion that I’ve never connected before.

I love holding my husband. Cuddling, hugging, holding hands. Being able to hold a smaller human that’s part Mike is almost too much to handle. The joy that will come of that fills my heart so much. I want to wrap my arms around this person and surround them with all the love in my heart the way I want to do/try to do with Mike, their future dad.

It feels like my heart is expanding in my chest to make room for this possibility, this reality. My throat starts to choke up because the depth of this is unspeakable.

When I think about having a baby, I always think about him or her as mine. I think about how Mike will be as a dad. How I’ll fall in love with him all over again when I see him holding our baby. But putting together how that baby will be part of my husband, will be his too, is a thought I’ve never consciously had before.

Tears stream down my face as I think about how special that will be. How amazing. The love I have for my husband and this future little person, little version of him, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt anything like it.

Is this what Mike’s mom feels when she says she’s ready for grandchildren? Is this the feeling she’s looking forward to? If so, no wonder.

I think I’m starting to get it. That though kids come with so much uncertainty, so much risk, so many things you can’t protect them from, they are an expression of love. To create a child in that image, from that space, that place of love, has got to be unlike anything else in the world.

I’m looking forward to experiencing these things some day.

don’t cry. don’t say that.

Posted on by jplatt27

I’m a crier. I’ve always been a crier and will always be a crier. I cry in conversations with friends, I cry at commercials. I’ve cried at work, and in yoga class, and in church. This is all pretty normal for me.

So take it from me, when someone is crying, the last thing they want to hear someone say is “don’t cry.” Please don’t say that. It doesn’t do anything for the person crying. When you say that, it cuts off the connection.

When someone is crying, you don’t necessarily have to say anything. When someone is crying, you don’t necessarily have to do anything.

The best thing you can do for a person crying is hold space for their tears.

Tears are sacred. Don’t be scared of them. Let them come. And let yourself be present for the person shedding them, whether that’s you, a loved one, or a stranger.

 

P.S. A beautiful little short on the power of empathy. Please watch this.

 

a quote to help with uncertainty

Posted on by jplatt27

I’ve been feeling a little uncertain about my career and purpose lately (read: since college) so this quote, shared in my Desire Map Book Club Facebook group, really resonated with me. I read it and felt like it was written just for me. If you’ve been feeling uncertain or anxious, I hope you find comfort in it too.

Sending so much love,
Joanna

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

i desire…

Posted on by jplatt27

desire

I’m leading a book group as part of Danielle LaPorte’s World’s Biggest Book Club. At the end of our last meeting we went around and shared, off the cuff, what we desire. (inspired by p. 23)

I desire…

to giggle with my husband at least once a day, to make a ritual of taking our future kids to Barnes and Noble and/or the library regularly to pick out new books together, to write, to have my words inspire and comfort other people, to host a standing Sunday brunch, to have a job that lights me up, to move my body every day in a way that feels right that day, to let go and feel free, to have fresh painted nails more often than not, to get in bed at the end of the day feeling a good kind of tired and already relaxed, to get lost in a good book, to go to happy hour regularly…

That’s all for now.

Wanna play? Share in the comments! It’s fun!

 

choc. chip cookies and basketball tickets

Posted on by jplatt27

cookie box 2

Earlier this week, I made cookies for colleagues that took time to speak to the Lafayette students I hosted for an externship (essentially a job shadow). I packed them up in little boxes that I got at Target and delivered them with a handwritten thank you note.

I was surprised at how touched my colleagues were by this gesture. I got so many thank you’s for my thank you. But it was more than that. It seemed like it really touched their hearts.

Then, my heart was really touched when I was on the receiving end of a gesture like that…

On Tuesday afternoon, I got an email from a colleague in athletics:

Joanna, Good afternoon. Would you like two tickets to the Men’s Basketball game tomorrow night? Let me know if you’d like them and I’ll place them at will call for you.

My colleague didn’t explicitly say that this was a “thank-you” but regardless I was touched by this generosity. By his thinking of me and taking time out of his day to do this for me.

These experiences got me thinking about gratitude and connection. I think people just want to know they’re valued. And to have that expressed with a gesture like cookies was really nice. To be offered basketball tickets totally out of the blue (I’ve never been to a game!) was an acknowledgement of respect. These little things go a really long way.

Talk to me:

Have you been acknowledged or thanked recently in a way that really touched your heart?

Is there someone in your life that you’d like to thank?