Team Wellness Advisory Board: Be in Your Own Life

Dr. Dennis O'Grady

BE IN YOUR OWN LIFE?!
So you’re not perfect; whatever. So your mood is blue when the skies are gray, whatever. So you shoot yourself in the foot now and then; whatever. Now this is the self-captivating and energy-catapulting choice you make every day in your inner skull talk:

• You can be in your own life.

• Your life can be owned by someone else who has taken over your inner life.

• You can be in someone else’s life–telling them what to do and be and say and feel and what to like and dislike and who to vote for and against.

• You can approve of or disapprove of your emotional experience, and worry yourself to death when you don’t feel centered-in-self (vs. self-centered) and confident (vs. insecure).

• You can be a control freak, because your emotions are running out of your control, and you’re not having much (if any) fun.

• You can strive to be liked for all the wrong reasons, and be a cardboard cutout of your true self and cutoff your true self and put your soul in a box.

• You can fear healthy disagreement, and hide under your bed covers.

WHAT DOES “BE IN YOUR OWN LIFE” MEAN?
What does “be in your own life” mean? It means you aren’t running ahead of yourself, or stuck in an emotional swamp behind yourself, or driving in a thick emotional fog with your headlamps turned off. You face your emotions with dignity…and permit your emotions to communicate with you.