Inside Out

In my “#Winning? #Losing?” post, I mentioned the Pixar movie “Inside Out”. Since then, I have thrown myself into happiness podcasts, a self-help workbook and started The Untethered Soul. And there seems to be a common theme among the three- everything starts from the inside out, not the outside in.

There is one podcast, in particular, that I have been listening to over and over again. The guest speaker references two stories that resonate with me- my favorite being about peanut butter (the other was about butterflies!) Basically, this guy goes to make a PB& J sandwich, but when he looks in the cabinet, the PB is not where it should be. So, he starts to look for it somewhere else, but it’s not until he comes back to the same cabinet as before, that he finds the PB sitting there- in the same spot he looked, where it was all along. His idea behind this story was that you need to continue to circle back to the area of concern; continue to talk about it; it doesn’t need to be talked about specifically, just in the same vicinity; and then someday, you will realize it was there all along. Just like the PB in the cabinet.

Dealing with yourself from the “inside out” means you are going to deal with some really uncomfortable conversations. But they are conversations that need to be had to get you past your moments of feeling stuck and finally putting things into action. Slowly but surely, I am starting to have these conversations- with some friends and most importantly, with MYSELF. “The hardest things that we face will never be solved with easy or comfortable conversations.”

So as I slowly work on myself more and more, there are a few points that seem to reoccur. Sometimes I just need to take a second to remind myself of these points and lessons. [The podcasts, book and workbook help me remember, too.]

1) The hard choices are most often exactly what we need to do.

• Don’t be afraid to make them or put them into effect.

2) Thoughts get in the way of allowing us to take the needed action.

3) Happiness starts from within.

4) Things are not always easy.

• I remember a quote from a Ted Talks that I listened to recently (like 5x) and the speaker spoke of a mentor who lives by the motto, “Easy choices, hard life; Hard choices, easy life.”

Which do I choose? “Hard choices, easy life.” With those hard choices comes hard work, tough conversations and digging deep to understand myself and the past. I’d like to think that I am working on myself from the “inside out”, even though sometimes, I find myself working from the “outside in”. It happens! You fall off track, but when you get back up and able to circle back around to the general vicinity, you will eventually come to find yourself working on yourself again- whether it’s directly or indirectly. I am ready and willing to continue to work on my road to happiness, recovery and overall, an “easy life”!