Who's on first?

We are all familiar with the Abbott and Costello comedy sketch. Here's a quick recap: a bunch of ball players have demonstrative adjectives as names leading to mass confusion. Hilarity ensues. End scene.

This got me to thinking- how many things in our lives cause confusion, doubt, and general unhappiness because we don't "name" it as precisely as we should?

Follow me on this one- it's 5 pm. Your day sucked and that box of cookies looks realy good so you eat it. Were you hungry? Probably not. But in this instance, what we should have named "frustration" we named "hunger" and dealt with the wrong emotion.

Here's another- You've just worked all day. You're tired, possibly cranky, and ready to relax when you get home. Once you arrive home, nothing's been done. Dishes are in the sink, dinner needs to be made, clutter is everywhere! You have to do it all so you do. Once done, you reward yourself with that triple chocolate chunk cookie figuring that you earned it. Were you hungry? Nope, but in this instance you've named "frustration" or "exhaustion" as "hunger" and dealt with the wrong emotion.

So what to do? The obvious answer is to think before we act. Make sure we're dealing with the actual emotion we're feeling in that time. But often that doesn't happen so we need to develop a stop-gap measure. For me, it's to write down what I'm going to eat before I eat. This means I have to find a pen, my journal or a piece of paper, a surface to lean on, etc. If I'm not really hungry, well by this point I don't feel like going through the hassle.

So my challenge to you this week is to check your emotions before you act. If you think you're angry, make sure you're really angry. If you think you're hungry, make sure you're really hungry.

There's no need to waste precious time on vague emotions. No need to wonder "Who's on First?"

Love always,
Reyna