February Newsletter -  2023

Greetings!

I hope this newsletter finds you enjoying the start of the New Year! This February may feel daunting with taxes looming, cold weather, and pushing through goals. Maybe you have kids going through change, you’ve moved, or business is NOT booming. This leads me to consider the emotional landscape of our culture at this time as our country faces a Mental Health Crisis in the aftermath of many blows to our already fragile state.

This February, I’d like to offer a creative yet effective reminder of how we might be experiencing our own emotions as well as the emotions of others.

Imagine yourself as a TUBE of toothpaste. The emotions and behaviors you have is the toothpaste inside. The is squeezing applied to the tube are the pressures around us. When that squeezing (life pressure) is applied to the tube (our balanced state), that toothpaste (emotions, behavior) has to come out. The designed (healthy) way for the toothpaste to come out is through the opening at the top (self-care).

Remember: someone or something MUST take the lid off to let the toothpaste out. I think our culture, families, stressors, the need for “image” is creating a very masked, often unknown message that we need to keep that lid ON so our “stuff” doesn’t come out. We think: if we never open the tube, we keep a nice clean, fresh tube of toothpaste! RIGHT? WRONG! What happens when you squeeze the toothpaste without opening the top? Toothpaste (emotions and behaviors) will come out in very strange ways: out the seams, out the cracks, or the tube might burst. YUCK!

I think we aren’t taking the lids off of our tubes, and it’s creating a mess. We have emotions and behaviors happening that make no sense, come at random times, and we don’t understand what is happening either to ourselves or those around us. WE MUST take off the lid and let our “stuff” out in healthy ways. What is your release? It could be talking, running, painting, dancing, hammering, cycling, swimming, floating, breathing- or counseling! There are so many ways to find out, but we are all different and need to know WHAT helps us open that tube and let that stuff OUT!

We were designed to need ways to release the feelings and behaviors that often get bottled up. We need to first be willing to take the lid off and allow it to come out in the way and space that is designed to be released. Best case: Twice or more times a day ;0).

Have a fabulous February, and while you're out there, if you can...

SHARE A SMILE!

Thoughtfully,

Shara Carter