How Full is Your Cup?

Now you are probably already thinking this is a cup half full or cup half empty blog. No, I’m simply wondering if your cup is full.

2015 was quite a year. I met so many amazing people in my travels to Sedona and England but I really didn’t need to leave home to meet amazing people because so many of them showed up in my classroom. These are people that accept life isn’t perfect but they want to greet each day with hope, love, and happiness. They want to be inspired so that they can reach their potential, love life, and everyone in it.

One commonality among all these people – they really know how to take care of themselves. They know that they have to fill their own cup with Love for themselves before they can give Love to those around them.

But on the flipside, 2015 was also full of those who saw the very worst. Expected the worst. Looked for every way something could go wrong. And basically were afraid to hope, to dream and when it comes right down to it… afraid to live.

I recognize this group of people so very well. Mostly because I used to be one of them. And looking back I didn’t take care of myself very well at all. I suffered from severe depression and teetered most days on the brink of anxiety. If I had a dollar for every panic attack I had – well let’s just say our farm would be paid for! As much as I hate to say the words – I completely understood why people chose suicide as a viable option. I understood wanting to escape the doom and gloom of the scary world that I lived in. Afraid to leave the house because it was the only place I felt safe.

Through all the research and studies by neuroscientists that I have since poured over, I can see how I was actually causing considerable damage to my brain. Worry, rumination, conversations about how terrible the world was, waiting for the next bit of bad news or world disaster… closing down my world all taking me one step closer to what scientists are proving to be true. I was actually implementing and helping the aging process specifically in my brain. Literally, studies showing that these unhealthy thought patterns were setting the perfect stage for diseases like dementia and alzheimers.

I can’t tell you how extremely grateful I am for the day that I had the thought “there must be a better way”. It was enough to shift my brain to allow new thought patterns to come in. Actually opening up new possibilities, to healthier behaviors for me to grow and learn to live life – instead of feeling like a victim of life.

It was a combination of giving my brain a break – meditation. And being open to educating myself on healthy thought behaviors. Essentially, in that moment I unconsciously decided to start taking care of myself. I learnt how to fill my own cup. I filled it with Love, compassion and hope.

I learned that anger is simply the by-product of fear. And in fear – Love is not possible. Yikes!

The better I filled my cup the more I had to give to others around me. Not to say that I’m 100% happy all the time. No, there are days that life does not look so rosy or I’m surrounded by people who really don’t want to see the bright side.

My job at the end of every day is to accept everyone around me whether their cup is full or empty. And at the end of every day – I need to check my own cup, is it full or is it empty….

And if it’s empty I need to remember that my cup is always refillable. <3

Listen to Tamina's audio version:

https://soundcloud.com/user-228569215/blog-how-full-is-your-cupmp3