On the Self-Management of Emotional State: Bahia's Baha'i-Inspired Strategies

Bahia's current post describes strategies she's learned for keeping herself in tune. -gw

yes, i was a bit shaken today when i realized that i don't want to leave after all. that hey, i'm quite content at home and i don't want to spend the next six months just waiting to come back. what threw me was how i could just change my mind like that, but what caught me was my mom explaining how much i'd changed.

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"Prizren, Kosovo," uploaded on May 9, 2006 by jo.vanka on flickr

i know i have this "weakness" persay, that we like to label as impatience. something else that comes to mind is something that Maike reminded me in Kosovo, that our weakness is also our greatest strength. it kind of brings it all back to the idea of balance--not to eliminate our weaknesses, but to simply be aware of them. it seems that when i put my mind to it, i can pretty much accomplish whatever i want (generally something everyone is capable of) and recently that focused activity has consisted of tearing apart my brain in order to "put the pieces back together my way" (Aesop Rock)

i have a pretty firm grasp on the concept of psychology and ideas that the Baha'i Faith have given me, to figure out that a lot of the pain we experience in this life is self-induced, and pretty much always stems from how we look at it. i guess the thing is that it's tiring to always be looking at yourself and the "bright side" so sometimes, as human beings, we just have to be sad. but other times, if it gets out of hand, we can get too sad, for anyone's own good, and that's something that will hold you back from making the most of your time on this planet. So, sometimes in order to get out of a particular funk and get some perspective you need to relocate in order to get a better view. or, in my case, you realize that there's always another side to the story, you open yourself up to the patterns forming in your normal life and you realize that you've had enough.

i guess i have this tendency to have epiphanies every so often, and when i do i can't help but change my behavior. as a result i guess i undergo somewhat drastic attitude changes. this as my mother helped me to see, is why i changed my mind so easily about going away for 6 months. you could say i was somewhat of a different person, therefore i made somewhat of a different choice. this is all said for the sake of my own sanity. it freaked me out to change my mind because it made me feel like i can't trust myself, that i can't make decisions because who knows, i might feel differently tomorrow. but i guess i learned that yeah, maybe i will, but what matters is learning to go with it, tend to my needs at the time in order to make the best decision and use of that time.

Bahia, "It's Funny," Bits and Pieces

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{Re-posted with permission}