SING IT OUT!
Often I get emails from people that they don’t post as comments on the blog. For some reason this blog doesn’t like to publish anything that’s cut and pasted, consequently, you don’t get the benefit of the response or comment, because I have to type it all out from the beginning, and I don’t have the time to do that.
But this one was good enough that I just have to transcribe it for you:
“Things have been so crazy around here, cheerleading, tae kwon do, little ones, projects, that I have not taken the time to write and say I’ve been thinking about you. I wanted to give you a hair-brained idea I have been trying over the last few, really stressful weeks. It has been working well for me, so I figure if it works well for you you….you can put it on the blog for others to try.
I have always known that “laughter is the best medicine”, but it ’s very hard to smile and laugh and feel light when one is stressed-out or fearful. So, I’ve started doing this - and it has largely worked.
When a person is stressing me out in the moment, I have been doing this in my head. When I’m anxious about a meeting or event, I do this out loud in my car.
Take a tune or two from your childhood that make you feel really silly for even thinking about. Mine are:”It’s a Small World After All” and the theme from The Brady Bunch.
Whatever is bugging you, sing about it using those tunes - either in your head or out loud. For example, I was really upset with one of the kids’ coaches, for calling the kids names and being very negative. My in the car out loud song (Small World), sung over and over on the way to go talk to her, was something like: “I will keep my cool when we talk; she can’t talk to kids that way; I don’t pay her to put my kid down; she’s just mean, mean , mean“.
It sounds really goofy, but I didn’t freak out about how the conversation was going to go the entire time and felt really calm when we did speak. Normally I would have fretted and worried both ends of the conversation to death until I was a useless wreck during the actual conversation.
I have also used this to word what POSITIVE things I will say about something that I’m worried about.
Anyway, see if it works for you the next time you’re stressed out and if it does, put it on the blog.”
I thought this was a great coping mechanism, and it has the colorful flair of silliness around it, which is good for the heart! In the past I have recited the Serenity Prayer over and over until I felt my blood presssure go down. But as I read her email, immediately “Flintstones, meet the Flintstones……” came into my mind and I have been humming it all afternoon. And just now as I was typing this out for you, another one popped into my mind: “Everyone knows an ant….can’t…..move a rubber tree plant, but he’s got …HIGH HOPES…..he’s got HIGH HOPES…..he’s got ….HIGH IN THE SKY APPLE…..PIE HOPES”, you get the idea.
So, if you see me driving on I-5 , or at an airport singing, just join me in a chorus….
“It’s a yabba-dabba do day….”, because, Lord knows, she’s right…laughter is the best medicine, and why not make it musical??? Here’s one if you can’t come up with your own: http://www.youtube.com/v/OZj5Q4dOMgg&rel=1”
Coach Julia
