A practice to help process frustration + judgment

Last week, one of my teachers mentioned the sense of “internalized pressure“ we can feel as we enter this first part of Spring. 

I hadn’t been noticing a lot of it in my own life, but of course, now that she had brought it into my awareness, I began noticing it more and more every day.

This is because of the part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS for short.

Our brain is inundated with so many millions of bits of sensory information every second, and yes, I said millions... the role of the RAS is to filter out anything we deem as unimportant so that the important stuff gets through without completely overwhelming us.  

It’s similar to what happens when you buy a new car and you start to notice them everywhere. It’s not that everyone else suddenly got that car too. The car has been around, you are just now more aware of it since it’s become a part of your world so the RAS is now letting it through the filter instead of discarding it. 

This happened when I went dancing a couple weeks ago and heard the Whitney Houston song, I Want to Dance with Somebody, a song I’ve loved since childhood. I subsequently heard that song everywhere I went for the next five days and couldn’t get it out of my head. 🤣

What does all of this have to do with internalized pressure?

All around us we are seeing and feeling the first signs of spring and anticipating what’s to come.

Trees showing buds getting ready to burst.

Flowers shooting from the earth opening in bloom. 

The Sun trying to exert the power of its warmth over the chill of the clouds and wind. 

In all of this there is an effort. Work to overcome what was and birth into something new. 

Like the pressure it takes for a lump of coal to become a diamond. 

Because your senses are a witness to all of this pressure nature is currently experiencing, your RAS may be picking up more lately on some of that similar pressure in your own life.

A habit that’s no longer working for you. 

A situation that suddenly feels unsustainable. 

A way of being you’re suddenly over and ready to be done with. 

And once these things are in your awareness they might be bringing up feelings that are creating the internal pressure that is the catalyst, through an extra dose of energy and motivation, for change.

You might be feeling more impatient. 

More frustrated. 

More critical. 

Less tolerant. 

More judgmental. 

And like a pot that’s about to blow its lid off.

Instead of judging these feelings (or yourself) for being bad or negative, remember that it is always darkest before the dawn. 

They are simply a sign of how close you are to entering your own next season. 

They are the brain putting up resistance because it feels the impending change. 

And the more you resist, the more they will persist. 

Embrace them as a natural and necessary part of the process and what makes you whole. 

Support yourself in releasing that internalized pressure with Part 3 of Tools to Support Emotional Well-being: Processing Frustration and Judgment.