Wellness by Shannon

  Sometimes, you need to let your mom win.  What do I mean by that?  Recently, I moved back to mom's having gone through a divorce, an in-the-rears house sale, and a large financial setback.  Being fifty-two and independent for many years of my life, moving back home was something that I kicked and screamed about until the day came where someone bought my house and gave me thirty days to get out and find a new place.  Thirty days you think might be a long time, yet when you have three animals, and your finances and credit are in the tank, there really is no option but to move back home, unless choosing to live in my car was some sort of a reality - which it not at all wasn't.  So. I sucked it up, sold 90% of everything I had, and without help from movers or anyone, moved into a small room in the back of mom's house, which is where I'm currently writing from - and am beyond grateful for - yet it's taken me a bit to get to a place where I can much more easily...

You have zero control over most of everything in life.   The one thing that's challenging for me is letting go of the need to control someone else's emotions - specifically, anger.  Why? Because on some level, I take it personally and don't often recognize that their anger isn't about me -- whatever they're angry about, I happen to be the one in their immediate space at that moment, and they use me to lash out at.  And I take it personally.  And I want it to stop right away, and I want to get the conflict over as soon as possible because I don't like conflict, which in turn then creates way more conflict and unnecessary bullshit that then turns into unresolved emotions that cause damage that never intended to be caused in the first place.  The adult thing to do would be to take a deep breath, assess my position, and back off.  But.  Sometimes, that's a hard thing to do.  The shift in my mindset comes with first seeing my flaw because, ultimately, ...

  Know when.  Do you know when to know when? Let me back up for a moment.  The phrase Know when landed in my brain inbox about six months ago while laying on top of my lover man, R, outside on a long log after chatting about life. After a minute or so of us simply breathing and not talking, he looked at me and said, 'Shannon, you got to Know when.' Since that moment in July, the phrase, Know when has been a daily occurrence.  Why? Because Knowing when applies to literally everything in life.  Some examples are: I didn't know when, when I sent that text the other day.  Knowing when came in handy when I was at the registry last week.  At the last moment yesterday, I knew when before I opened my mouth to say something that may not have gone so great.  Do you see how knowing when applies to everything? More importantly, do you understand how knowing when can accelerate your growth, expand your self-awareness, and make you more intuitive about...