Shoot the gerbil

A friend of mine was sharing with me today that she is in counseling because she can’t get her gerbil to stop. She doesn’t own any rodent pets. Her gerbil is in her mind. Many years ago, I shared with her my analogy of my thoughts that run like a gerbil on an exercise wheel. It’s a favorite metaphor for our inability to quiet our spirits or to stop ourselves from the maddening thinking/doing/thinking/doing/thinking/doing cycle.

Sometimes, my gerbil is a great ally. He’ll pop into action and generate ideas (a few are good!) at an alarming rate. I’m not sure how he does it, or why he climbs on the wheel with no solicitation and often to the bewilderment of acquaintances who gave no indication of requiring creative assistance. Note: I realize I’m addressing my gerbil with a masculine pronoun…it means nothing…if I’d chosen a feminine label it would not mean that I find the gerbil less irritating.

Often, the gerbil’s wheel seems to be a cog in a larger mechanism bent on breeding worry. The gerbil races from one source of angst to the next, going over and over the same worn patterns of possibility until sane and rational routes are obscured to my spirit’s navigation. There’s a line in a favorite Jason Mraz song, Details in the Fabric, that reminds me of this rut. Mraz asks, “are your thoughts the result of static cling?” If you’ve never lived in a dry climate and tried to separate knit fabrics melded by the force of static cling, that line may not bear the same resonance for you. But really, many of my gerbil-generated irrational thoughts do just cling to my conciousness through a negative force that seems to attract them again and again.

Sometimes, you just have to shoot the gerbil. Now, before the PETA follks get all up in arms, please know, I would do no harm to the little creatures…(though possible scenarios are fueled by elementary school memories of Sondi Grover’s gerbils meeting a variety of dismal ends…Including one that bounced itself to death rolling down the stairs in it’s acrylic exercise ball…I think there’s another metaphor or two there!!) This morning, my friend and I decided that perhaps the reason she just wants to sleep is because that is the only time the gerbil is still. One has to stop and ask herself, “Who’s in control here?!”

You are!

Your gerbil is not the boss of you. The negative force that causes anxiety-riddled thoughts to return to your mind like static attracting a sock can be controlled. It begins with consciousness. Often, our bodies tell us first. Perhaps your jaw tightens or your neck and shoulders begin to ache. Maybe you see your reflection in a shop window and realize that you are physically slumping under the pressure of the yoke of concern clinging to your shoulders. And perhaps the whirring, squeaking, buzzing of the gerbil wheel has distracted you so that you go days without noticing if there are birds in your back yard or a gentle breeze trying to stir your spirit. Those are signs that you need to take charge.

As I told Mary Charlotte one day, a thought is just a thought unless it’s a proven fact. So, choose your thoughts. If you’re stuck on a negative one ie. I can’t stand my job, replace it with a positive one…I love my job! Why not? It’s just a thought and I bet you could find just as many reasons to support a positive point of reference as a negative one if you turned your energy that direction. The problem is that we are used to the picture we’ve painted, even if it’s created the same clingy ideas that get us nowhere. So…switch things up a bit. It will give the gerbil a reason to pause, and it will give your spirit a fresh perspective. It takes something dramatic. Remember how hard you have to shake out a blanket to get those socks to let loose of their staticy hold?

Change your perspective. Go sit in a sunny spot or listen to something beautiful…or unusual. Sit up straight. Better yet, stand up! And most of all…breathe!! The other lyrics to that Jason Mraz song are a balm for my troubled soul. I have a dear friend thousands of miles away. Yesterday, she knew I was bearing a heavy heart. She sent me just these lyrics, “Deep breaths….hold your own…know your name…and go your own way.” Tari’s in Germany, but that simple reminder was as good as a gentle hug and my load felt lighter.

How do you offer yourself hugs? Do you have an inner gerbil wheeling away in the corners of your spirit? If so, how do you restore peace? The answers to our life balance lie within each of us, but I truly believe that through sharing inner peace making strategies, we create a healthy sense of interdependence that nurtures the peace among us…and you know what happens next…that peace and goodness grows!

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