Week 187: Splinters

In this episode, I talk about literal and metaphorical splinters(metaphorically, emotional overreactions) and how they both have a lot in common. I talk about “Chandeliering” from Brene Brown, which is a difficult situation that is objectively a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10, but we react to it as if it is a 10. Similarly to a literal splinter, we feel like we need to react immediately, but the best course of action is to pause, take stock of the situation, and (in the case of splinters at least) sometimes just wait until the next day/the next time we are in the pool to get the splinter out. Both feel huge when they are inside of us (the splinter and the difficult situation) but when we get outside of it, they seem impossibly small to have caused so much pain. Action item: when you experience an emotional “splinter” situation (overreaction), see if you can give yourself some space, even just a little- a bathroom break, splash cold water on your face, take a deep breath or 5, go for a walk, etc., or just tell yourself "this is a big old splinter."