Good days and bad days. We all have them. But a way I’ve found to avoid deeper emotional dips?
I don’t pick up the snake.
You may be familiar with Aesop’s fable about the Farmer and the Viper. If not, check it out here. It’s a good lesson to live by shared with me by my friend Rich VanSlyke.
The story goes (roughly) like this:
A snake asks a farmer for help. The farmer is hesitant because he doesn’t want to get bitten. The snake insists that he won’t bite, he just needs the farmers help.
‘I won’t hurt you’, says the snake.
The farmer gives in and picks the snake up, which then bites him.
The poisoned farmer drops the snake and says, ‘What did you do that for? You said you wouldn’t bite!’
The snake replies, ‘What did you expect? I’m a snake!’
We are the farmer scanning the news ‘quick’ or wanting to slip onto social media ‘for a sec’ to stay connected. We want to know what people are talking about. It sucks us in saying ‘I won’t hurt you, go ahead and check in’. The result is we see the news and the comments it creates. Or we see how someone’s life appears so much better than ours. And we start down the rabbit hole – look how bad things are in the world or look how I don’t measure up to someone else.
The snake lured you in with promises of knowledge and connection, and you left feeling poisoned.
Fill your time instead with a book or a podcast about something that interests you (I am currently obsessed with Guy Raz and How I Built This). I also have a book with me in my office that I pick up and read when I need to clear my head for a few minutes.
Am I saying ignorance is bliss? Maybe a little, but I’ve found the more I avoid the snake, the less tempted I am to pick it up.