Garbage Brain Learns to Compost
Don't feel good? Get good at feeling.
I consider myself a person who has worked really hard to be joyful, positive, open, and empathetic to myself and the world around me (except towards slow drivers. Y’all test the bounds of my love.)
Despite working to “feel good,” I often find myself spiraling into anxiety. Then I fatalistic-alize my problems.
A house project goes wrong? It must be because all things are meant to crumble around me.
A vacation didn’t turn out as planned? It’s probably because I don’t deserve nice things.
Friend hasn’t called me in awhile? Surely they have better and cooler people to hang out with.
I don’t know why our brains do this.
I think it’s just the price we pay to be squishy humans in a messy world.
And if you’re a person that just goes blithely through the entirety of your days feeling neither worry nor self-doubt nor frustration nor remorse, congratulations! This isn’t for you. (And also, you are a sociopath.)
But if you find yourself swinging wildly between buoyant hope and existential dread, you’ve come to the right spot!
Something that has given me a lot of freedom and peace when Garbage Brain starts spewing out its bullshit trash is that I know how to compost.
I’ve learned how to process those rude, intrusive, “unhappy” thoughts and feelings.
I’m sure y’all have heard the phrase “Feelings aren’t facts,” right? Well, recently I heard this phrase that blew my mind:
It’s not important to feel good. It’s important to be good at feeling.
When you think a “yucky” thought, what do you do with it? Do you allow it to fester in there? Do you stuff it down? Or do you turn it into compost?
To compost our Garbage Brain feelings, we have to really feel ‘em. Ask ourselves questions about them: How does this thought make me feel? Where does this feeling live in my body?
Then we “sit with” that feeling a bit. Y’know, just, actually, feeling it in our bodies.
Often times, emotions will release. Inspirations will come. Weights will be lifted. Or, maybe, the feeling just won’t feel SO volatile the next time it comes.
The more we do this—the better we get at feeling our feelings—the more we understand that the goal isn’t to move through life with nary a negative thought or emotion (again, impossible except maybe for sociopaths?)
The goal is to become good enough at feeling that we can turn those uncomfortable thoughts and emotions into something that helps, heals, and teaches us how to live in a world.
So no matter what you’ve got goin’ on, whatever refuse Garbage Brain tries to fling at you, just practice feeling.
I think you’ll be surprised how your “negative” trash-talk can get composted into dense, nutrient-rich soul-soil that helps you to grow and flourish.
And if that doesn’t work, name your Garbage Brain and write a song about it.
Love,
Annie B.
THREE GOOD THINGS
1. I had one of these probiotic Culture Pop Sodas the other day at a friend’s house and loved it. I will be honest, I still do not know the difference between prebiotics and probiotics but it was fizzy and not too sweet and it basically healed my insides.
2. If you’re one of those people who’s like UGH I need to wear sunscreen on my face every day but I don’t know which one—this is my current fave.
3. Do y’all know about Human Design yet? Yup, more Hippie Woo from me, the Hippie Woo connoisseur! But no, it’s actually been blowing my mind. And you can find your type here!