My 35 Day Life #ReThink explained through Hollywood Blockbusters.

Twister is one of my wife's favorite movies. The goal of the adrenaline seeking crew is to collect data from inside the eye of a tornado, in order to better understand how they are work. (*spoiler alter*) Before they could finally succeed in their mission, they willing put themselves in the path of the storm, in harms way ... a bunch of times! That's about how day two of my ReThink feels right now. Lots of energy just swirling around with no discernable pattern or direction. Predicting what thoughts the next hour will bring, is impossible. 

For the last few years, life has felt like controlled chaos. It's also felt like an unwinnable war at times. 

The problem is with a time-out after such a long stretch, is that there is A LOT to unpack and re-think. Clearly most of it is just for the purpose of studying, in order to unearth some sort of clues for how to approach the future. The majority of the consequences of the decisions of the distant past (good or bad) have already been realized. But the question is, how do I (and we) stop to analyze situations as they unfold, rather than in the rear view mirror. How do we get data from the eye of the tornado? We shy away because of the risk; it’s tough to expose ourselves to data collection at a time when we are most vulnerable. That's a big part of why I chose to document my own 'break' or whatever you'd like to call it. It's unlikely too many will read it, but the exercise of writing this is already forcing a much deeper dive. By putting language to it rather than just settling for a vague feeling-like level of understanding, it becomes more of a challenge and therefore feels more real. Particularly since I'm not the best writer. 

There is also the knowledge that I'm putting myself in harms way (sort of) by writing this. Although we are making big strides in our culture when it comes to openness about mental health, it scares a lot of people to engage and explore the concept, including myself. Probably not as scary as chasing tornados, but still, it's just new to think that mental fitness comes in all shapes, sizes, durations, etc - just like physical fitness. And even more new (at least to me) to think that there are ways we can improve our mental state just like our physical state ... once we understand it.

Tomorrow : Braveheart