Ep. #78: The Circumstance Trap

Since last week did not go as I had planned, it got me thinking about how much power we give to our circumstances. For example, we tend to attribute our emotions to our circumstances. Whether you are feeling down because you're sick, or feeling on edge because your child has been having more meltdowns lately, there is a very common tendency to link how you're feeling to what's happening in the world around you.When you do this, you place yourself at the mercy of your circumstances, and it's very difficult to see how you can do anything to change your experience (besides changing your circumstances). When you attribute your emotions to your circumstances, you create a trap for yourself. You give yourself no other option but to wait for your circumstances to change, or to go out and change them.You may not even realize that you're doing this. You might think you're simply feeling stuck. Hopeless. Defeated.And it's normal to feel bad when you perceive your circumstances as bad. This is a connection that nearly all of us make. The problem is that we assume causation. We assume that our circumstances are CAUSING our emotions, and we completely overlook an essential factor at play: the way we think about our circumstances.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/julia-mcgarey/support Get full access to The Blackbird Chronicles at juliamcgarey.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit partneredpathparenting.substack.com