Strengthening/Weakening Decisions

I had a terrible weekend. Saturday night I was so depressed and lonely I encouraged the dog to sleep in my bed.

The cat too.

I hate cats normally.

Sunday wasn't as bad, more of a fall out from the night before. But I didn't get anything done.

One of the staples of simple.ology is the Power Praxes. This is a system of evaluating what makes you stronger and what makes you weaker. I'll talk more about the simple.ology part later, but about how I can relate that to my mental state now.

The basic idea is that you look at a decision and think: "Will this make me stronger or weaker?" It's simple. If it's something that makes you weaker, you don't do it. If it makes you stronger, you do.

Simple.

I realized this morning I can apply that to my emotional state as well. I can't say specifically what started my downturn Saturday night. But I know that I was feeling lonely. I have to start paying close attention to my emotions and whenever they start slipping, I have to ask myself, "What is making me feel this way, specifically?"

And then stop whatever it is.

I know it's not a perfect solution. It's like a weed. You know that unless you get the roots it's going to grow back. But I don't yet know how to get at the roots. They're encased in lead or something. So until I figure that out, I have to keep chopping at what I can get at.

The more I do practice this train of thought, the easier it will be the next time and the next time and the next time. Until eventually, I won't think twice about doing the things that make me stronger and cutting out the things that make me weaker.

It definitely isn't perfect, but they're steps that will lead me to perfection, however small they may be.

Baby steps!