Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, It's Cally Taylor here for this week's Mojo Monday.
Speaker 1: So we had a bit of a life blip this
Speaker 1: week and it is the inspiration for today's episode because
Speaker 1: I kind of thought, well, this sort of thing can
Speaker 1: happen to anybody at any time, so it could be
Speaker 1: a helpful topic. So if you've been listening to this
Speaker 1: podcast for a while, you'll know that there's a message
Speaker 1: that I really come back to quite often, and that
Speaker 1: is when life throws challenges our way, and it will
Speaker 1: if we've done the work on our mental fitness, we'll
Speaker 1: have the tools to respond rather than react, and how
Speaker 1: we respond will hugely impact the path we take, both
Speaker 1: emotionally and physically. So here's the Taylor challenge for this week.
Speaker 1: My daughter, who is nineteen. She plays in the women's
Speaker 1: first soccer team for our local soccer club. She's in
Speaker 1: State League three and she's not shy of a tackle.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's been noted that she has what's called
Speaker 1: white line fever. So the moment she steps over that
Speaker 1: white line, she's got this fierce competitiveness and it kicks
Speaker 1: in and last Sunday, while going in hard for the ball,
Speaker 1: her legs went one way, her body went the other,
Speaker 1: and she hit the ground in complete agony. She had
Speaker 1: to be stretchered off the field. And three days later
Speaker 1: and MRI confirmed what we suspected, and that is that
Speaker 1: she's got a ruptured ACL. So we were in the
Speaker 1: car today and she was telling me how frustrated she
Speaker 1: feels and her team. They're in the middle of their season.
Speaker 1: She loves the game, she loves hanging out with the girls,
Speaker 1: she loves going out dancing, and she's been training hard
Speaker 1: at Crossfitch. She's seeing stronger every way. So everything was
Speaker 1: going well in her life. And we've also got this
Speaker 1: very active holiday booked diving and hiking in Malaysia, so
Speaker 1: you can understand the frustration that she's feeling. So yeah,
Speaker 1: she was feeling pretty down. But then she said something
Speaker 1: that made me really proud. And it was a bit
Speaker 1: of a tick, a bit of a parenting tick because
Speaker 1: Paul and I have been really trying to teach our
Speaker 1: kids to have good character, and I think this statement
Speaker 1: was a big tick for that. So what she said is,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be so grateful when I can just
Speaker 1: walk properly again. And she said, I'm grateful that I
Speaker 1: actually have legs to do that, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was really cool because on one hand, she was telling
Speaker 1: me about how frustrated and down she was, and then
Speaker 1: on the other hand, she was telling me that she
Speaker 1: was actually grateful for what she did have, and that
Speaker 1: really got me thinking. We often hear that we should
Speaker 1: be grateful for all the good things that we have,
Speaker 1: and gratitude, of course, it absolutely plays a powerful role
Speaker 1: in our well being, and the science tells us that,
Speaker 1: but there's this subtle pressure, I think, and I think
Speaker 1: this can come with the language that we use, because
Speaker 1: that pressure can really creep in. It's almost like we
Speaker 1: can feel guilty if we're feeling sad or frustration or angry.
Speaker 1: We feel like maybe we shouldn't be feeling those feelings
Speaker 1: because we should be grateful. But here's what I said
Speaker 1: to my daughter, and this is why I wanted to
Speaker 1: do this podcast today, so I wanted to say this
Speaker 1: to you today as well. It's okay to feel frustrated
Speaker 1: or whatever painful emotion that you're feeling and grateful at
Speaker 1: the same time. They're not mutually exclusive. One doesn't have
Speaker 1: to cancel out the other. And I think this is
Speaker 1: a really powerful message for not only us, but also
Speaker 1: for our kids, because we will always have these automatic
Speaker 1: emotional responses when hard things happen, especially when that thing
Speaker 1: matters to us. Painful emotions are just part of being human,
Speaker 1: so it's natural that these automatic emotions show up. But
Speaker 1: this is where mental fitness comes in. When we build
Speaker 1: that muscle, that mental fitness muscle, we get better at
Speaker 1: responding to those emotions. We don't ignore them, we don't
Speaker 1: try and shove them away, but we don't get swallowed
Speaker 1: up by them either. So we can hold frustration and
Speaker 1: gratitude simultaneously. Because if we only focus on the pain,
Speaker 1: then that's where all our attention goes, and so that
Speaker 1: is what the feeling of the pain, or that painful
Speaker 1: feeling is going to exacerbate. But if we can pause
Speaker 1: and acknowledge the pain and also bring in what is
Speaker 1: still good and what is still true in our lives,
Speaker 1: so what we're still grateful for, then that can help
Speaker 1: us find that balance and it kind of takes the
Speaker 1: sting out of the painful stuff. So this week, if
Speaker 1: you are navigating something hard, try this. Allow your emotions
Speaker 1: to be there, all of them, So don't try and
Speaker 1: fight with them, just allow them to be there, and
Speaker 1: then gently ask yourself, what else is true? Right now?
Speaker 1: Can I make a little space for gratitude for the
Speaker 1: good stuff, not to erase the hard stuff, not to
Speaker 1: ignore it, but to sit beside it. So that is
Speaker 1: mental flexibility, and that is mental fitness, and it's a
Speaker 1: big part of what keeps us steady when life throws
Speaker 1: a curveball. So I hope if you are going through
Speaker 1: a challenge, or even if you're not going through a challenge,
Speaker 1: I hope that will help you when when life's challenges
Speaker 1: do hit. And have a have a great week, and
Speaker 1: I'll catch you next week. See yea