feelings – Shaunanagins

Living with No Regrets (is bullshit)

October 11, 2013October 16, 2013 by Shauna V, posted in Lifestyle & Brainwaves, Rants & Raves

This is going to shake some people up. I think it will, anyways, based on the number of people who claim “NO REGRETS!” as their mantra (hashtag YOLO?).

I’ll disclaimer this by saying that I’m not picking on the sentiment behind the “no regrets” claim. I just feel the need to tear the literal concept apart. “No regrets! ” sounds increasingly like a thin veil of optimism, rather than a genuine way to live. Because, honestly, can you really be an emotionally healthy human being without a little bit of this?

Basically, regret is what happens when empathy meets taking responsibility. “I feel bad that you’re feeling bad. I feel worse because I played a role in the situation. I’m going to apologize and move forward with my life now, but I will remember this so I don’t repeat it in the future because that’s what a genuine apology looks like, guys.”

Every time you apologize sincerely, you express regret. Every time you feel a little guilty, the lessons from that (constructively) become a part of who you are. Even if you have to cancel on a friend, the regret that it was necessary (again, empathy meets responsibility) is probably a genuine sentiment.

So where does this concept of living with “no regrets” stem from? I think it boils down to two basic principals:

You should move forward with your life, instead of dwelling on the past.
Everything you have been through got you where you are today, so…God bless the broken road, amiright?

These both sound great in theory, but I don’t think you have to completely abandon healthy regret to value these imperfect ideas.

You should move forward with your life, instead of dwelling on the past: Okay, yes. Dwelling is not a good scene in any case–dwelling on future worries, on past loss, on that zit you can’t get rid of. I think aiming for “no dwelling” is a good call. But regret doesn’t have to be debilitating. It doesn’t have to be obsessive. It just has to be genuine and, hopefully, constructive. Maybe this is my history major talking, but completely tossing out the past seems like a dangerous game to me. Healthy regret doesn’t mean wishing moments or people back from the dead. But it does mean conducting a fair autopsy.

Everything you have been through got you where you are today: “But but, crazy blogger lady, ‘no regrets’ just means we value those mistakes instead of feeling bad about them!” I hear you. I get it. Especially on the “moving forward” front, this is a decent attitude. But I truly believe that when you have done something bad, “feeling bad” about it is healthy. It shouldn’t be a guilt that consumes your future, but it should affect you somewhat. It should make you take pause.

Sometimes we make bad decisions. You can marvel at the way “everything worked out in the end,” or see the silver lining, but you are still allowed to feel negatively about certain consequences and take responsibility for your role. You’re allowed to regret making a mess. You’re also allowed to feel proud when you clean it up, or build something new. It’s all part of the same game. Healthy regret helps you learn from your past, and to see those lessons fabricate.

Yes, I think there is such a thing as healthy regret. And while “NO REGRETS!!!” is a pretty ridiculous idea, it’s fair to say that there’s an ugly side of the sentiment that should be actively avoided.

Healthy regret should:

Be forgiving and constructive
Motivate you to apologize sincerely
Allow you to recognize when you are inconveniencing another person
Allow you to recognize when you have made bad decisions
Help you make better decisions
Force you to challenge yourself and find solutions in the future
Make you more forgiving of other peoples’ mistakes
Make you more grateful for the positive things in your life, as they stand in contrast to those regrets

Healthy regret should NOT:

Force you to live in the past
Fuel victim mentality
Be applied to something that happened to you, which you never had control over
Assign blame outside of loving self-reflection
Work against forgiveness
Create debilitating guilt or fear
Lower your self-worth
Make you less grateful for your life because of past pain and mistakes

This is totally achievable. It has to be. Regrets are natural, and it’s hard to control when they come up. Instead of denying them, we should learn to process our regrets in a constructive way. And if we don’t…

Our apologies are going to really suck.

10 Steps to a Better Day

March 11, 2013March 12, 2013 by Shauna V, posted in Favourite things, Lifestyle & Brainwaves

I had a rough week.

Not the kind of rough week that results in a long list of things-gone-wrong and a sigh of “Girrrrl, I need to VENT!”. Nothing tangible like that. My sighs sound more like ‘Well, you know, it’s one of THOSE weeks’: First word problems, chocolate cravings, untimely nostalgia, “I’m probably just under the weather.”

‘Merica is an acquired taste. The best things always are. This past week, I was knowingly halfway there; Washington and I were on a half-hearted, confusing fourth date. The novelty of “going to a new place” had worn off, but I still didn’t quite fit in. It’s not unlike that third day of kindergarten, almost-but-not-quite able to colour inside the lines. Or, being at a concert, trying to sing along to that song everyone knows (you think you know it too, but you’re barely mumbling along to the lyrics all the same).

Basically, a big load of self-imposed awkwardness followed me around last week.

At times like these, my Facebook-self usually stays perpetually optimistic: “Have you seen my blog? Have you seen my life? It’s cool. My hair is brown. I read the newspaper. I have attractive friends. Please like me.”

(Between you and me: my roots are coming in, the only physical paper I read is Street Sense, and no, I’m not dating the guy next to me in that picture. But please don’t tell Facebook. Those people knew me in middle school.)

This Friday, it felt like it was finally (finally, finally) time to crowd source some cheer:

WOW.

I knew warm fuzzies were all over the internet. What I didn’t know was that my friends and readers could bust them out on demand like that. And I certainly didn’t know that they worked so well. Turns out, there is a way to line up some of the internet’s better offerings and (hopefully) make for a better day. Or a better week. Really, just a better outlook, period.

And so, based on these suggestions, I present to you: 10 Steps to a Better Day, Courtesy of the Internet

1) Press the “Make Everything Okay” button: http://make-everything-ok.com/

2) Spend a few minutes reading “Gives Me Hope”: http://www.givesmehope.com

3) Watch this video.

4) Now, go on: Get onto Facebook, pick up your phone, and do what that video told you to do at the end. Reach out to family. Write a thank you note.

5) You did it? Good. Time to go to your quiet place: http://thequietplaceproject.com/

6) Come back from your quiet place. Watch this to feel grateful that you can:

7) Amazing, right? While you’re at it, you should probably watch this one, too.

8) Are you crying? ‘Cuz I’m totally crying. Time for a hug: http://www.thenicestplaceontheinter.net/

9) Read a few of the “1000 Awesome Things”: http://1000awesomethings.com/

10) Turn off your computer, go outside if you’re able–if you can’t, at least try to open a window. Shake it out. Put on your favourite song. And remember:

Love.

Jealousy has a stage name. It’s called Inspiration.

January 11, 2013January 11, 2013 by Shauna V, posted in Lifestyle & Brainwaves, My Fallible Advice

I’m going to describe to you a hypothetical scenario. (Just hypothetical, mind you. I am not admitting to anything.).

You check Facebook. You see a post from an old friend. This post suggests that they’re doing cool stuff, and they’re doing it well. Yes, someone else’s life is awesome.

You’re a good person, of course, so your first thought is: Hey, that’s cool! Good for my friend!

(…except that it’s not.)

You start clicking through pictures. They have really cool looking new friends (who, you assume, are way cooler than you). And they’re hot. When did everyone get hot? When did everyone start doing cool stuff? By this point, your friend has completely trumped anything hanging around your profile–three months worth of George Takei “shares” and one music video from the 90s, to be exact. You look up. You are surrounded by all the laundry you have to do, clutter on your desk, a bleak-seeming text messaging inbox, the way your hair is growing in funny.

In a few hours you might be happy for them–but right now, you’re busy being mediocre.

Dude. Stop.

Here’s the thing about jealousy. Jealousy has a stage name. It’s called inspiration.

I’ve learned this the hard way (okay, here comes the admitting part). I have spent way too much energy wanting/waiting/wishing/generally being useless. I think a lot of people have. It’s easy to become defeated when you see other people doing cool things. To pick a totally random example (Judi), you could see a picture of an old friend tobogganing down volcanoes in Nicaragua (Judi). At that point, it’s very easy to say “Well, I’m not in Nicaragua.” It’s easy to feel a little bit smaller than you did a second ago, to just move on with your day.

But what if you were to take that pang of ‘This is something I find awesome. Noted.’ and turn it into motivation? You could add to your bucket list. You could surround yourself with people who live amazing lives. You could learn from them.

Every year, I have the same overarching goal: to make next year’s Me someone that this year’s Me would crumble in jealousy of…or at least dread going up against in a job interview. I couldn’t even go about that without my jealousies-turned-inspirations. The fact is, I would not be in Washington DC right now if someone (Judi) didn’t offer so many envy-inciting stories about interesting jobs in new places. And I wouldn’t even be writing this had I not been struck with admiration(-cum-jealousy) after seeing other women’s mega-blogs this summer.

“Maybe I could do that. Right? Maybe? I don’t know.”

There was literally one way to find out. Just one.

Jealousy may be ugly, but inspiration is beautiful. Is someone else is trying new things? Noted. We should also go try new things. Did someone else accomplish something big? Noted. Let’s go start something big. Do you wish your butt looked even half that good in a pair of skinny jeans?

…yeah, me too.

Skinny jeans aside, we have a choice every day (cliche alert) to get bitter, or get better. I’m gonna try to be on team “get better.”

Who’s in?