Dead Leaves and a Dirty Ground When I Know that You're Not Around...

First of all, happy belated Groundhog Day.

Secondly, please join me in a moment of silence. I just received notice that the White Stripes is officially over, following a 3 year hiatus. That's it. Over. Capiche. Fini. And here I've been anticipating another record that would surely be the best thing my ears have ever heard. If they weren't writing songs, what were they doing all that time? I know that this is early in the grief process, but I'm very angry about this. I had a chance to see them twice after the release of their last record and neither time panned out- the first because of a client who had to reschedule and then no-showed on me (I may still be holding a grudge) and the second due to Meg's reported acute anxiety, which resulted in the cancellation of their entire US tour for Icky Thump. I know that its only a 2 person band, but I just don't know why the show couldn't have gone on without her. Anyways, I'm very sad... no- angry, but I think the sadness will set in really soon.

So, this begs the question (which I planned to address much later in this 52 week blog sequence)- what is the best way to manage intense feelings like anger (which is sometimes considered a "secondary emotion), sadness, or anxiety? I'm not sure there's one particularly best way, but there are definitely helpful things people can do... and unhelpful things as well... when encountering emotional overload.

The first thing, and sorry to pound this to the ground, is that a person is set up to handle intense situations better if they are well rested. Maybe the patterns of severe lack of sleep in my life have been my way of learning this lesson the hard way, or maybe this is my own subconscious way to convince myself that I really need to start going to bed earlier. At any rate, sleep deprivation over long periods of time can contribute to even worse things, like anxiety or depression, which affects functioning in a lot of areas, including relationships. Sometimes sleep deprivation can be a result of anxiety and depression, though, and when this happens, some good relaxation exercises or mindfulness techniques can be used to train the mind to switch gears.

I really like (Cognitive-Behavioral) mindfulness techniques. Some can be on the silly side, like blowing bubbles and noticing where they float, and others are really enjoyable like listening to a song and noticing the different nuances in the melody. Regardless, there are lots of things that a person can do to retreat to a different mental space just by using the raw senses to experience feelings other than what is depression- or anxiety- related. We will discuss more mindfulness techniques another time.

But alas, my daughter is calling for me, so I cannot sink too far deep into sadness over the White Stripes just yet. Maybe later.

Coming, coming... geeze!!


photo reference: beatcrave.com/tag/ the-white-stripes/