Hello friends,
Today we're going to talk about the funky sponge.
I think we've all experienced at one point or another.
A sponge that has outlived its usefulness.
That hasn't been rung out properly time after time.
And it's starting to look awful.
And it's certainly starting to smell pretty funky,
Right?
So why are we talking about this?
Well,
The sponge represents us.
In this metaphor,
We start off as the brand new sponge in the plastic package.
We rip it open,
Perfectly dry,
Ready to absorb,
Ready to scrub,
Get the job done.
No smell,
Everything's nice and fresh,
Right?
But that's how we start off.
And then we go out and we commute to work.
And we absorb some of that dirty traffic water because people can't drive and they can't focus.
And man is it frustrating.
And then you go to work.
And You absorb some dirty water from there because work is tedious.
You have the TPS reports and you have the reply all emails that never should have existed.
Or you stay at home with the kids and you're getting that stress and you're pulling in that dirty water.
And you're interacting with family or strangers out there.
We all do it.
There's no avoiding it.
We can't just isolate all the time.
We have to live life and inevitably we're going to absorb some of that dirty water.
But here's the key thing.
We know what a sponge looks like when it's fully saturated,
Right?
You're carrying the sponge.
You're not even squeezing it.
It's dripping out everywhere.
So if you go home and you start interacting with your family and you haven't wrung out your sponge,
You're dripping that dirty water right in the front door.
And then you go hug your spouse,
You hug your kids.
You're squeezing it out,
You're inadvertently and unintentionally getting that dirty water all over them,
And then it's in their sponge.
And now you've got a household full of funky sponges,
And nobody wants to be there.
It stinks.
So what do you do?
You have to find a healthy way to wring out the sponge as often as possible and as much as you need.
We have to be honest with how much we are absorbing all the time and how much we're actually letting go of instead of just keep holding it in and letting the mold and the mildew build up.
So how do we wring out the sponge?
Well,
It's different for everybody.
And it's not necessarily easy,
But also,
Let's not make excuses and say that we can't do that,
Or we can't spare 5 or 10 minutes to wring out the sponge.
If that's all we can do,
That's better than nothing,
Right?
If we've got 30 minutes or an hour to do it,
Great,
But don't make excuses and say,
I don't have time.
You can sacrifice 5 or 10 minutes of scrolling on the phone to do something to help.
Help you wring out the sponge.
So how do you do it?
Me,
I prefer doing breath work.
I do powerful breath work.
It's intense.
It often elicits emotions out of me,
And I might shed some tears,
But it feels good afterwards.
I never regret doing it.
It's hard to get into,
But I always feel better afterwards.
It's cathartic.
Crying is good.
That's how we get that stuff out of our body,
And then it releases those chemicals that help us feel better afterwards.
Feel better after that.
So,
Breath works good for me.
Cardio is another form of breath work,
So some people like to run,
I don't.
But some people do.
Bike ride,
Whatever.
Whatever gets that heart rate up and that cardio going for a little bit is essentially breath work.
That heavy breath is letting that stuff out of us.
We express it.
And we get everything flowing again.
So physical activity,
Lifting weights,
Hitting the heavy bag,
Whatever it is,
Meditating,
Getting it out of your body.
If you can consistently do this and find a routine of getting a chance to wring out your sponge before you interact with your loved ones,
Before you accidentally drip all over them,
You will find that your life gets healthier and things smell better and that sponge is going to last longer.
The more often you wring it out and the more thoroughly you do it,
That sponge is going to extend its life.
Alright?
So please,
Keep your sponge clean,
Find the healthy ways that you can to wring it out before you drip all over everybody else.
Love and Light
