All The Feelings, All Of The Time

August 16, 2021

When she shared about my upcoming Joy Infusion masterclass on social media, Nicole Eiden wrote,

“I'll be there as the co-boss lady (hah!) of Windowsill Pies but also as the busy, drained, happy, overwhelmed, stressed, down, up, wired, focused, unfocused Nicole that most of you see.”

Oh how I relate to this.

These days, it’s all the feelings all of the time.

On Friday, my emotions ranged from ambivalent to angry. I was utterly exhausted and felt I did a fairly crappy job in all of my roles, entrepreneur to mother to volunteer. Vegging out on The Great British Baking Show was about all I could handle.

Yesterday, I experienced a power surge of motivation and did All The Things: knocked out a ton of tasks I’d been procrastinating on and sent so many supportive texts that I needed to do special hand exercises after.

When I experience emotional whiplash like this, I have to remind myself:

This is a normal reaction to an abnormal time.

I’ve long believed it’s perfectly healthy to experience a full range of emotions, but these days I experience all the feels amplified and accelerated.

We’re stuck on the spin cycle, feeling a ridiculous range of emotions all in one day, except when we feel totally numb instead.

Here’s what I know: moments of meaning, connection, and joy can help stabilize us.

By sharing her myriad, seemingly contradictory descriptors, Nicole’s post helped me feel supported and seen. It gave me language I didn’t have before she posted and prompted multiple charming text exchanges.

Her candid description was also so relatable it made me giggle, which served as a mid-day joy infusion of its own.

A sense of community can be a powerful tool to navigate what feels like an unending crisis. Let’s move through this weird, wild, often very crappy time together, celebrating those moments of connection.

Let’s navigate all the emotions while we seek out joy together. It’s way more fun this way.

Cheers to the feels.