They are real and they suck.
Quite literally suck. All the joy. All the excitement. Emotional hangovers are like a whirlpool of suck that drink up all the good feelings.
Sometimes I get them after a day of really hard emotional choices or strain. I think that more often though, I get them from having a really awesome day where I let my guard down and got vulnerable. That was yesterday.
Let me tell you I was in THE FLOW yesterday. I was pulling all kinds of inspiration out of my Vortex.
I wrote my first About Me page. I wanted my bestie Pamela to read it as she’s my go-to girl for vulnerable stuff like that. Alas, she couldn’t see it though because my site was still “coming soon”. In an effort of bravery probably inspired by her just go for it ways, I made the site live so she could click the link.
I am not so delusioned to think that people were just waiting for it to go live so they could see it. Hell I don’t even think Google can see it yet. If it can it is most likely way done on page 20 of the search results. You know. The part you and probably all of us had never clicked on.
It didn’t matter. I was terrified someone would find it.
Tired of my website looking like a total bummer, I bought this classy premium theme I had been eyeballing. I used all my computer nerd powers and got in installed and started setting it up. It instantly looked like something that didn’t make me want to vomit at the idea of someone finding it. Ahhh, relief.
I spent most of the day in this high flying excitement of getting it tweaked. Tweaking posts. Messing up the homepage and switching it back. I even got brave enough to add it to my Instagram and Facebook profiles. Gasp!
It was a day that felt so good… until I was going to bed.
That’s how the emotional hangovers start for me. Just like a night of drinking too much. My head gets all swirly. I start getting all of those weird grouchy thoughts out of nowhere. I know I have gone too far. I stepped too far out and my ego is going to let me know.
I slept an hour later than usual today. That is a big ass deal to me because my morning alone time is PRECIOUS to me. As soon as I got out of bed I could feel it.
The heavy heart. The weight on my shoulders. Hangover.
I’ve had these enough times that I can feel them and identify them now. It doesn’t make it any easier though. I know that it’s time to start nursing this thing before it ruins my whole day.
No Advil or greasy foods required.
No no friend, emotional hangovers are way harder to nurse. It requires dealing with the emotions that got me here in the first place. It’s about talking my ego down from its soapbox. And let me tell you, my ego is one a talented speaker. A real snake oil salesman.
“Just yell a little. It will make you feel better”
“Stare at your phone a while. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Talk about all the things that are bothering you. That makes you feel better.”
It seems so right in the moment, but that ego is a liar. All of that crap makes me feel WORSE. Which I’m sure snake oil probably did too. Eww.
Nursing an emotional hangover looks like
- Listening to a song that pumps me up
- Mediating
- Taking a shower
- Drinking a lot of water
- Realizing that I am in fact in the midst of an emotional hangover
- Reminding myself that this will pass
- Reminding myself of how important all that work I did really is
Emotional hangovers suck but they don’t have to consume our day. It took courage to do everything you did yesterday. Courage is being afraid and doing it anyway. You are a brave badass. Take a little breather today and be kind to yourself.
When was the last time you woke up with a big bad emotional hangover? What helped you?
P.S. Here’s the song I decided to listen to today that helped me snap out of it. Thanks to Ms. Rachel Hollis for introducing me to this one. If you haven’t watched her documentary on Prime, it’s worth a watch. I won’t spoil where things song pops up in it but it’s awesome. Enjoy!