What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours … So the song goes.
However, allowing ourselves the gift of the 72-HOUR OPTION when big decisions need to be made is invaluable.
It is a tried and tested Emotional Fitness technique I have used myself since 1995 when I commenced rebuilding my life and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Sleeping on a big decision allowing ourselves 24 hours of grace does help. However, the gift of the 72-HOUR OPTION, three full days, allowing our head, heart and body all adequate time to get on the same page, is a deliberate discipline that offers greater reward. Ever notice how we feel on a Monday can be vastly different to our point of view on the Thursday? Or how different a Thursday is from our Sunday perspective on life.
As a recovering addict and an emotionally challenged individual I have always allowed myself the luxury of pausing and gifting myself with the 72-HOUR OPTION …
“I’ll have to get back to you” response.
This intercepts people-pleasing, guilt responses and old wounds being triggered creating the need for instant gratification to avoid sitting with any confronting feelings.
After many years of personal emotional detoxing, learning to process new concepts and heal deep heart wounds, my therapist always encouraged me to give myself three days to digest and integrate. His wisdom proved invaluable. I pass this advice on to my Emotional Fitness clients that bravely need to face a harsh truth, or confess to a beautiful dream they had never dared to express. In the 72 HOURS that follow a deep emotive shift, I suggest my clients are as gentle and as patient with themselves as possible. Once our subconscious elevates our dream or trauma state to accelerate integrating new information and releasing toxic data we no longer require, we need to give ourselves this gift of time.
If people demand to know an answer there and then and it is a big decision for me, I still hold my ground and say I will have to get back to you (with my 72-HOUR window in my heart’s diary dictating the date). If they say they can’t wait my response is …
“My decision is to decide not to decide for now. I’m sorry, that’s the best I can offer”
Giving ourselves the gift of time to evaluate our heartfelt reasons for making a choice is our birthright.
If you believe in biblical scripture it is said that after three days …
“He rose from the dead”
After three days (the 72-HOUR OPTION) what once can feel like it will kill us can reveal a solution to a problem we never dared to face, until we calmed down and gave ourselves permission to rise and shine in our own time.
So next time indecision arises in our lives, and we need to really slow down and check in with our head, heart and body on our reasons for saying yes or no, let’s allow ourselves the liberty of the wise 72-HOUR OPTION.
May we ensure we protect our weary hearts, allowing adequate time to resurrect hope and preserve our self-respect.
Lotsa love Cynthia xxx
© Copyright 2016 Cynthia J. Morton Emotional Fitness™
This Word Vitamin is an excerpt from my latest bookset “The Four Seasons of the Heart”. If you would like to order your own full set of Daily Word Vitamins one for each day of the year, in book form for yourself or as a gift just click on the SHOP tab and place your order.
