Balancing Overflow
Imagine that you have two cups within your body. One cup has the label FILL and the other has the label EMPTY. When the first cup is full and overflowing, you feel energized and hopeful and you can’t help but pour love out to everyone around you. When the second cup is full and overflowing, you may experience chronic pain and symptoms that could lead to disease.
How your first cup may be filled:
Joy may be poured into this cup when someone smiles at you, gives you a compliment or does something kind for you.
Gratitude may be poured into this cup when you look at a sunset, spend time in nature, your sweet pet comes over to snuggle next to you or a loved one gives you a hug.
Love may be poured into this cup when someone gives you flowers, spends quality time with you, makes dinner for you or tells you how special you are to them.
Calm may be poured into this cup when you practice emotional freedom techniques such as tapping, enjoy a beautiful guided meditation or listen to soothing music.
Energy may be poured into this cup when you move your body in ways you enjoy and eat mostly whole foods, fruits and veggies.
How to empty your second cup:
By releasing suppressed emotions of stress, anger, fear and trauma through expressive writing, by typing out your painful feelings and then deleting them, you are pouring out from this cup.
By spending less time watching and reading about scary and upsetting things in the news and more time reading inspiring books and watching funny or hopeful movies, you are pouring out from this cup.
By spending less time with people who tear you down and more time with people who build you up, you are pouring out from this cup.
By letting go of resentment and forgiving others, you are pouring out from this cup.
By quitting smoking or vaping, drinking less alcohol and eating less processed food and sugar, you are pouring out from this cup.
The size of these cups are unique to you. If you were born empathetic and highly sensitive, you may feel like your cups are smaller than others. Your heart overflows with emotions of joy and sadness more quickly than other people you know.
If you have experienced a lot of trauma or have an extremely stressful life, you may feel like it is hard to keep up with the overflow of pain. Learning to balance the overflow of these two cups can put our bodies in a place where we can heal and thrive.
I hope your first cup will overflow with joy, gratitude, love, calm and energy. And I hope that with awareness and taking responsibility for your life and your health, you will continue to do whatever you can to balance your overflow.