What can I do when Life Feels Crazy? Is it “OK” to Feel that Way?

🤗😍😁😐😑🙄😣🤐😴😪🙃😤😖🤪😠 Many times, especially when we are young, we think a “great life” is meant to be fun, exciting, carefree, and without consequences, all the time. We may convince ourselves that if our days don’t turn out that way, and instead go in crazy directions, life sucks. In reality, there is some truth to that: there are times when it is burdensome, tragic, confusing, and overwhelming. These feelings may trigger not only emotional unrest but also physical symptoms. Even worse, it could be that the people we had thought cared about us respond to our situation and emotions by trying to quickly dispel our feelings of negativity or sadness. I myself have had days and weeks like these, and have spoken to and listened to others about their similar stories.

🤔➡🤩😜🤪🤳📳💻📺🎰🚬🍱🍽🍹🍸🍷🍾🍺🥂🍮🍰🎂🍪🍩🍦💲🛒Sometimes, we take it a step further and believe that, without constant excitement, engagement, and good vibes, life is worthless and meaningless. We seek to fulfill the ‘fun’ emotions and to numb the ‘bad’ emotions by engaging in certain external habits or pleasures – such as eating lots of food, using our phones for the wrong reasons and/or for too long, posting on or obsessing over social media, binge-watching movies or tv shows, looking at news reports about everything we wish to know, taking drugs, drinking lots of alcohol, spending excessive amounts of money, gambling, sleeping too much, taking out our feelings on someone else, hurting ourselves – and performing other forms of destructive activities. 😞We may not even realize the harm we cause to ourselves in the moment, but the effects of these behaviors hit us like a brick. 😱🥴😢🤮And then, suddenly, we awake and regret what we did to ourselves. 🔫🔪Some people, sadly enough, even commit suicide in an attempt to escape life.

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️“So tell me, what are healthy approaches to life feeling crazy? Is it ok to feel like life is dizzying or tragic or overwhelming or difficult?”

1️⃣ Let’s answer the second question first: It is ok to feel that life feels like any and all of the emotions you may experience, positive or negative. Having feelings is not only ok, it is an essential component of the human experience. Without them, we’d basically be lifeless. Our brains and bodies would have not have much, if any, energy or drive or motivation. It would be as if your brain and body completely shut themselves off, G-d forbid.

2️⃣ Now, how do we address and express those feelings we don’t like to experience head-on, like when life is a whirlwind of anxiety and stress, or when tragedy occurs? There is a lot to say on this, and I am not fully equipped to address all types of instances like this or how to provide advice exactly to each person in these circumstances, but there are some steps I believe if one takes them, will progress towards incorporating healthy coping strategies and making their lives a little less of a hectic experience: 1. 😮💨Breathe in your feelings, count to three, and then breathe them out. Imagine your abdomen is like a balloon that expands and contracts, allowing oxygen to enter in the chest, lungs, spine, brain, and mouth, and to exit out. This ‘exercise’ also allows us to be present. 2. 🧘‍♂️🧘‍♀️🆗✅🧠Acknowledge, validate, and experience your emotions. This is like mindfulness. Choose a couple of emotions or thoughts – one positive emotion that you really appreciate, and one negative emotion that you normally avoid or have difficulty to approach. Now, close your eyes and place yourself in a comfortable position. Think about that positive emotion and what that feels like internally for a couple minutes. You might feel warm or flexible and free. Now, do the same for the negative emotion. This is admittedly harder to do. You might feel hot, cold, stiff, or like you want to cry. Again, these emotions and experiences are all ok to have, so try to roll with the punches as they come. Take a mental note or jot down your experiences with this exercise in order to remember how it went. You may perform this exercise with someone else if that helps. 3. 🧍‍♂️🚶‍♀️🏃‍♀️Move your body slowly in different directions. Practice doing that consciously – where do I physically ‘feel’ the emotion or thought in this current moment? How can I move with it? You can perform a specific stretch or exercise to put yourself in motion. I heard from [a video of] someone speaking to addicts that the word “emotions” has the root word “emote,” which means either figuratively or literally ‘to move,’ and that movement is necessary to direct the emotion somewhere, preferably to a place that is healthy. Whether consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously, our bodies move in some direction in order to experience the emotions and thoughts that enter our brains. 4. 💦Drink water. This not only fuels the body with hydration, it also feeds healthy energy into the bloodstream and brain. 5. 🗣👥Talk to someone. It may be too difficult to process the emotions we have all alone and without support or guidance. Try to reach someone you truly think can listen, be it a friend or family member or mentor. This is personally something I have included into my schedule for a while, and it usually has a lasting positive impact for both myself and the person on the other end of the conversation. If you need a professional, seek and call one immediately. 6. 💪👐Develop the courage to face your thoughts head-on. Yes, it takes courage to do this! If necessary, that develop that courage together with the person you had designated to speak to (in step 5).

Once again, there are certainly many more approaches to engaging with our emotions. Everyone experiences their emotions differently – we can’t read the minds of other people – and everyone prefers to use different approaches based on their current state of mind, so I cannot speak for all people on this matter. Choose what works for you.

😀Yes, YOU have the power to choose! Your emotions themselves cannot choose for you, nor should you let them. So choose wisely.

🧡✌👌👍🙏Have a great weekend of health, goodness, growth, and strength.

Yours truly, Nate “Tani” Siegelman Siegelman Spirit “The spirit keeps us sane. Share yours.”

👉In other news, the photography pages are up and running properly, finally (I got the memo and took some advice from a friend about this one)! 👇👇 📸Main photography page: https://siegelmanspirit.wordpress.com/photography-main/?frame-nonce=05e3ce9ea5

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