What do you do when you think, you've done such a good job at growing and evolving and overcoming, you've gotten so far and yet out of the blue you get smacked right off of your cute little inner equilibrium and all the insecurity warnings flash up at once like Christmas lights - a full-on radioactive insecurity meltdown out of nowhere..?
Well..
If you ask a Josie, the best way to deal with these kinds of situations is to get distracted. By getting busy, by diving head first into some artsy project, something tactile and immediate. Something that takes up all your attention. Something you can easily hyperfocus on.
Bake a plum pie, sew a dress, go for a walk in a forest or immerse yourself in and move with some delicious belly-dancing rhythms. These are just some girly examples, but I'm sure you could come up with some manly equivalents, should the necessity arise.
You could also take a full-on inventory of all those insecurities that have reared their ugly heads and critically assess, if there is something that you've been procrastinating on, or meaning to do, but just haven't gotten around to and use this opportunity to eradicate at least some of them for good. Are there any appointments you should schedule, something you need bought, something that needs fixing and CAN actually be done? Write that down and then follow through.
Be kind to yourself, but also be practical about the things you can do to improve.
Maybe there is something that you need to do for yourself, not to seek validation from the outside, but just to reflect some of that confidence back at yourself. Prove something to yourself first, quietly, without anyone else knowing. It is after all only ourselves that we need to impress and get that validation from, the rest will inevitably follow.
If the winds of inner turmoil are getting waaay out of hand then it might be wise to treat the situation with care and implement some soul emergency measures, like anything that's on your safe list. Safe list? - You ask. Yes, a list of things that make you feel safe. For me, for example, the safe list includes warmth, like a nice warm bath or a sauna, a hug from someone I trust, going to sleep all nicely tucked in and warm, those kinds of things are on my safe list, but you have to check in with yourself and write up a safe list of your own.
I'd suggest figuring out what's in your safe-list before you need it, so that when you do you can just check it and see which item on it is the most feasible at any given circumstances and would be the most effective.
It is important to take self-care seriously, also emotional and psychological one, as no one else is able to do it for you and cannot know if and how bad things might have gotten. Be gentle with yourself when you're hurting, because no one else is going to know if you're torturing yourself and piling on more unnecessary hurt on the one you're already feeling.
Do not torture yourself, it is simply not necessary.
You'd be surprised how much of mental health problems are self-inflicted just by buying into and amplifying and multiplying some negative aspect we've presumed about ourselves. But we don't have to think like that anymore. You know, you get to choose not to think bad thoughts about yourself anymore. Exercise that choice and stay true to it. Because only you can truly help yourself in the matters of your inner world.
Take very good care of yourself for me, please!
Thank you! ^^
And you know where to find me if you ever just need to talk to someone.
~Josie~
Song on a loop: MIKA - Grace Kelly