The Daily Llama, by Staci DesRault, brings you short, one-word meditations and a corresponding quote plus a reflection for your complete wool-being (#seewhatwedidthere?) for Monday, September 11th – Friday, September 15th, 2023.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11th
WORD OF THE DAY: DELIGHT
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
People love a good Before and After story. Both social media and television are filled with short videos or shows featuring some renovation or makeover. While they may keep a few dramatic moments of the labor it took to transform from Before to After, most of the hard work and mess is edited away to the cutting room floor. As viewers, we are left with the impression that transformation is relatively easy as long as we have the right tools and a reasonable budget. We get the result in 60 minutes or less.
Transformation in real life is messy, complicated, and unpredictable, and it also takes time. When we’re in the middle of our mess, it can be tempting to judge those further along (or farther behind) in their renovations as having it more accessible than us. Judging others doesn’t make the work of your transformation process go any easier or faster. It just makes it more challenging.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th
WORD OF THE DAILY: CREATIVE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
Workaholism can present itself through the way we think about work, the way we feel about work, and the way we engage with our workplaces. You may struggle with work addiction if you have constant thoughts about work when you are not at work and are finding it difficult to “turn off” these thoughts. Work addiction can also present more emotionally than cognitively, where you tend to feel anxious or guilty if you are not working when you feel like you should be.
Similarly, you may be a work addict if you tend to work above and beyond what is reasonably expected by the organization. And finally, no work addiction problem would be complete without putting the needs of your job ahead of your family’s needs and your health. Of course, work addicts need their enablers, and plenty of toxic workplaces are waiting to profit from your need to be required.
Workaholism leads to burnout, which depletes our creativity and productivity, leading to the mindset that we have to work harder and longer to prove ourselves. Like any addiction, it can become an endless cycle until we decide to stop the insanity.
Your work should support your life, not the other way around.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th
WORD OF THE DAY: CRY
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
When we have been hurt or disappointed by another person, it is a natural defense response to want to retreat and disconnect. Taking time to reflect and heal is a reasonable action. Yet there is a point in time (and that point is different for everybody) where solitude turns to isolation, and isolation becomes dangerous for our recovery.
It is not physical isolation from others that is the problem; it is emotional isolation that jeopardizes our recovery the most. Emotional isolation looks like the following thoughts and behaviors (not an exhausted list, by any means): 1) believing deeply that nobody can be trusted; 2) being unable or unwilling to talk about how one feels; 3) believing that you cannot ask for what you need from a friend or loved one; 4) tendency to form only shallow relationships; 5) difficulty listening to others share their pain without rushing to change the topic, give advice, or crack a joke; or 6) avoidance of anything that triggers feelings of vulnerability.
When we avoid getting hurt, we also avoid loving and being loved in return.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th
WORD OF THE DAY: RELEASE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
Many of us know the often-quoted Shakespearean verse, “To thine own self, be true.” How this phrase gets interpreted may vary. Some of Polonius’ advice to Hamlet was about being honest, and others that it was about doing the right thing. Another possibility is that “being true to yourself” is about following through on your values and commitments to yourself, a sense of faithfulness to one’s character. Still another: Be you. Everyone else is taken.
But which version of us is the true one? There are as many versions of ourselves as we have roles to play in our world, and we are constantly changing and evolving. Is our past self more real than our present or future self?
Perhaps we release ourselves from the façade of identity when we accept that we are all and none of the roles we play or the masks we wear. Not one version of us is the whole story, and the entire story of who we are continues to be written.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th
WORD OF THE DAY: AFFIRM
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
Making solid conclusions about the future can be so tempting based on what we see right now. But to create change, it takes vision. To have a vision, one must see beyond what one sees now. Being able to imagine what could be, takes courage. To have courage, we need to be affirmed and told there is hope.
Resources Are Available
If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties surrounding alcoholism, addiction, or mental illness, please reach out and ask for help. People everywhere can and want to help; you just have to know where to look. And continue to look until you find what works for you. Click here for a list of regional and national resources.
