What’s your instant emotional upswing?

Have you ever experienced an instant emotional upswing? The experience of intense joy that changes your mood/outlook in a moment? Can you remember the last time you felt this ~ and can you replicate it? Can you feel that emotion again and again when you need it? Can you call to mind that upswing and swing out of a dark mood at will?

What was that moment for you?

Mine was a recent one when a friend said to me, “I will help you,” and it was in that exact second that the intense ball of fear/insecurity/sadness/darkness which had settled in the center of my chest melted away in an instant. One minute I was completely feeling overwhelmed and the next minute (audible finger snap) just like that, it was gone. POOF! Erased, as if it had never been there in the first place.

Why is that? Those words are ordinary. They aren’t anything provocative or medicinal. Or are they? The fact that someone whom I trust, reached out to say, unbidden, “I will help you,” is extraordinary, powerful and priceless. For me, it was a deal sealer ~ it made the tasks that I was facing to feel less daunting, more manageable and less burdensome because a burden shared feels lighter.

And the funny thing is that she lives hours away by plane so it’s not as if she could truly come to my house to help me. No, not a chance. But what she could do, and what she did, was to be there for me. To be supportive, to be encouraging, to praise, to ignite the fire and passion which I had hidden. To fill up my enthusiasm meter when it was lagging and to refill the confidence which I had lost. It wasn’t that she was approving of what I was doing so that I was getting that child-like parental approval. Oh no! She was using her peer-like enthusiasm, her cheerleader friendship which virtually shouted, “yes, go for it” as I went about the tasks at hand.

Knowing she would stand by me, next to me, hand and heart at the ready should I fall, made all the difference…and it still does. It made an Instant Emotional Upswing in my life. I am ever grateful for our connection and I am blessed to have you in my life.

So if you should need a cheerleader, an enthusiastic “Yes, you can! Go for it! Woo Hoo!” friend in your life, just know that I’m here for you. Heart at the ready and friendship available. I am your biggest fan!

Shine On!

P.S. David Kanigan over at lead.learn.live wrote this phrase in his blog awhile back and I just jotted it down. I apologize for not being able to tell you the exact post in which he wrote about it nor how he, himself, used the phrase. I only know that it stuck with me and was my inspiration for today’s post. Thank you David.