Tula… EAT something.

This is on the surface a ridiculously simple piece of advice but it has paid more regular dividends over the past few years than probably anything else.

And it’s a handling/dealing with/managing/opening to emotions week, so it’s appropriate.

And… it’s based around the little problem that our soul is shoved inside a chimpanzee.

Thing is, you’ve got to look after the chimpanzee

Yesterday, we had our friend around for German cheese-meat-bread-frühstuck-brunch-y thing, which finished about 12.00. Then we headed into the mall to mooch around and catch 14 Blades at 3.30.

The only moment of drama was when we were about to order some dim sum about 2.30, and suddenly the people at the stall were being rude and intimidating, my friend was being strangely insistent on weird stuff, I was getting impatient at having to make decisions so fast, and no one was understanding me…

You know what happened?

I was hungry.

Dammit!

In theory, low blood sugar doesn’t exist

Apparently, only people with diabetes get low blood sugar. For the rest of us, our insulin works well enough to compensate for highs and lows.

Hyuh – tell that to my drama button. (By the way, that link is my favourite one-page website).

I am one of those people that need to eat every three hours or so, otherwise the drama walls close in, everything gets amped up like someone turned up the contrast, and, well, woe to me.

I think there are three

AA says there are four things you want to avoid when trying to keep sober – HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.

(I’m told – that’s not the reason I don’t drink).

My major drama triggers are: Hungry, Tired, Worried-about-something.

Thing is, in my experience you can’t just go inside and check, you have to do it with math.

Mood math

I can’t go, ‘Do I feel hungry?’ because by that time, I am totally toddlerized, and will say, ‘No!’

I have to go, ‘When was the last time you ate something?’ and, ‘Was it long-lasting?’ If it’s more than three hours, it may be that I need to maybe try ingesting something. I ask myself in a humour-me kind of way.

And having practised this for so many years, the first question is often enough for me to go, ‘Oh, yeah…’ and head off to the fruit stand.

Same with tired – I have to check in with the facts and going ‘Did you sleep well last night?’ or ‘What time is it?’ because if I slept badly, or it’s now 11.00pm (that’s late in my world), then it’s possible that drama is happening because of the time, rather than the drama being real.

Same with worried, though this is a little more nebulous, and might involve tuning in a little to sensations in my body. I can often feel when there’s something happening that isn’t connected with what’s actually happening, and so begin to doubt the veracity of the drama  (the Do I Have A Thing About This Steps are helpful here, I find).

The bottom line with all of these is that the apparatus to recognise the phenomenon is impaired by the phenomenon.

I can see how the Lonely and Angry ones might work, though I’m not sure you can deal with those in quite the same way.

Instant Annoying

So…. this is for application to you.

Want to know how to annoy someone pretty much straightaway?

Find them having a hard time and say, ‘Do you need to eat something?’

When someone is in the midst of a freak-out you listen, until there’s an opening for more sane input.

And if you were to ask, the question is, ‘When was the last time you ate?’ and needs to be asked extremely gently, and works best if you’ve set up the arrangement in advance.

So, maybe start the charity at home, before evangelising your smugness around.

In short:

If you’re hungry, tired or worried, correct, wait, then see if the drama is real or not.

Internal Editor: Is that all? Can’t you at least end it in a witty way?

Me: No.

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