Finding Moments of Joy - Journal Entry No. 8
“Stop what you’re doing... and go and find that moment of joy today. And then do it again tomorrow and then the next day.”
Summary
In this episode of the Invisible Condition podcast, I share my personal journey of balancing life with a chronic illness, managing stress, and pursuing education. Reflecting on the challenges of health and academic demands, I emphasize the importance of finding moments of joy even during difficult times. I encourage listeners to reflect on their personal growth and prioritize self-care, while reminding them that it's okay to say no to commitments that don't align with their values.
Takeaways
Finding moments of joy – Even in the midst of stress and challenges, it's important to pause and reflect on moments of joy, no matter how small they may be.
It's okay to say no – Saying no doesn't mean no forever, it might just be no for this particular season, and that's perfectly okay.
Reflect on growth – Take time to reflect on how you are growing in this season of life, especially when things feel overwhelming. Reframing challenges from a negative to a more neutral or positive perspective can help you grow.
Filtering decisions through your values – It's important to align decisions with your personal vision and values, especially when you're overwhelmed and tempted to say yes to everything. This helps maintain focus and prevents burnout.
You don't have to struggle alone – Whether you're living with a chronic condition or just feeling overwhelmed, reaching out for support is essential. There are people and resources available to help, and it's okay to lean on them when you need it.
Links
Transcript
Hey, Tim here, host of the Invisible Condition podcast. It's been a while since I've recorded a little journal entry. I've actually recorded a few, but just felt they were vulnerable and didn't want to share them. But today I'm just rerecording a couple of those thoughts and ideas. And I gotta thank my good friend Tamara for this thought. Moments of joy. I'll admit the past while has been a struggle. It's been challenging.
The summer was great and maybe I got too used to the routine of getting my work done, my paid work done, my invisible condition work. Well, it actually didn't really get done because I kind of paused a bunch of that stuff, but getting back at it in September was hard. To top it off, I made a decision to pursue a master's degree. And this is something that has been on my mind for many, many years.
I have this idea that I want to teach one day and I thought getting a master's will get me there and it will eventually. However, a couple of weeks into the program, I just had to pause and unpack a few things. I was miserable. I was cranky. I was exhausted, but one of the most important things was that my health started to take a turn.
You know, living with Crohn's disease, least for me, stress is a massive contributor to flares. And, you know, my doctor said to me, Tim, you need a job without stress. And, you know, I think I've been designing that in life, even though it's still stressful, adding on this idea of a part -time job of a master's degree, because it equated to minimum 17 hours a week of work for the next, well, almost 18 months.
I felt so, so stressed, stretched and stressed and something had to give. And I had to make the tough decision to remove myself from school and it sucked. I want to pursue school. I want to pursue education of some sort. I don't know what it's going to look like, but a friend reminded me that, you know, teaching doesn't have to be in the classroom. It can be in other places. And strangely enough, a few organizations reached out and asked if I would consider coming in and providing some workshops. So that's been pretty cool. I actually received a deposit from one of these clients recently, and it just feels surreal. And this summer I picked up a book. I've been following Brianna Pastor for a while on Instagram and they've got a book called Good Grief. One of the little poems in this book says, your growth will be more apparent when it is being tested. Your growth will be more apparent when it's being tested. And I have to admit, I felt like I was being tested. One of my defaults is when I'm stressed, I say yes to everything which is odd because I thought maybe if I'm stressed, I wouldn't actually say yes to things, but I said yes to a lot. A lot of cool conversations had happened and I wanted to jump in and support organizations outside of the work I'm doing with Invisible Condition. on top of that with school, I just so overloaded and I was being stretched and I feel like this was a moment of growth. So I was definitely being tested and what it reminded me, well actually I didn't remind myself, my dear partner in life Tanya reminded me that I say yes to things because they seem cool or maybe it's driven by ego, but do they align with my vision and my values?
So maybe you're listening to this today, maybe you're struggling with something, maybe you are struggling to find that moment of joy in life. But as soon as Tanya said that to me, I was reminded of what, again, my friend Tamara said is that moment of joy. What every day there's moments of joy. So when you're stressed, when your body feels horrible, your mind isn't, what it needs to be. You're just feeling run down. Maybe take a pause, shut off your device, close your eyes, go for a walk, whatever you need to do and think about that moment of joy. Think about how are you growing in this season? Think about the people that you might be able to rely on or might be able to reach out to, to guide you through a conversation of, of joy, of growth. You know, living with a chronic condition is hard, isn't it? Maybe you're listening to this and you're a caregiver and it's hard. Maybe you're listening to this and you are an HR professional or a leader in a workplace and you've got people on your team who live with something.
And it's hard when we get caught up in that negative mindset.
How do we react? We have to choose how we react.
You'd be like me, get completely overwhelmed, say yes to everything and then crash and burn. Or filter things through your values. Now I realize this journal entry is covering off on a lot of different topics, but I want to centralize it on a couple of things. One, finding that moment of joy. Two, it's okay to say no to things. No does not necessarily mean no forever.
But maybe it just means no for this season.
Maybe that advice is helpful for you if you're looking to advocate for yourself in your workplace, your school, or with your doctor. And three, maybe take some reflection on in this season you're in right now.
How are you growing?
It's amazing when we reframe things from a negative to even neutral or a positive, just something happens in our brains, doesn't it?
You know, if we go from this place of, I'm so overwhelmed, life sucks, school sucks, family, everything sucks, to, I am so overwhelmed. What is this telling me?
It's hard to do the reflection sometimes, but it's so incredibly important. So with that, that is my rambling journal entry for today. I hope it resonates with someone, but if anything, these journal entries are so therapeutic for myself. And yes, that's selfish to say, but there I said it. Maybe you are thinking about starting a podcast and to start your own journal entries. Let me know, happy to talk.
about that, but most importantly, I'm here for you. I want you to take care of yourself. And if you're struggling with that, you don't need to do it alone. So let me know if I can support in any way. And if I can't, there's a list of great people on my website under the resource tab who are happy to support you as well. So with that, I hope you have an amazing day and stop what you're doing stop listening and go and find that moment of joy today. And then do it again tomorrow and then the next day.
