The Back Burner

You have probably noticed that I tend to post a lot for a while and then I disappear for months at a time.  I know that this is really bad blogging etiquette but yet I still do it over and over again.  For a long time I have asked myself why I do this and the only answer I could come up with was to say that there wasn't really anything going on in my life worth writing about during those times.  I never once asked myself why I didn't have anything to write about, I just accepted it and let the blog sit there untouched until something came up that I decided was worth writing about.  That is until last week. 

I got this new digital scrapbooking software and I really wanted to try creating my own blog header.  I was working so hard on this new header when I finally asked myself why I was doing this when my blog is dormant.  Why bother?  I asked myself why it was dormant and gave myself the typical answer that there isn't anything going on in my life worth writing about.  But this time I didn't stop there; I kept asking "why?" until I got down to the root. I discovered a cycle that I tend to repeat no matter what is going on in my life.  As I face new challenges in my life I just tend to add them to the cycle.

The cycle begins with me coming to a decision that I need to "deal" with my challenges.  I list them all out and make goals for myself.  I generally start blogging at this point because I need a place to write these goals out, track them, vent, etc.  I dig down deep and really try with all my might to get through these challenges and to make some progress.  I psycho evaluate myself (yes I realize that even now this is exactly what I am doing) and tell myself all these stories about why this time it is going to be different.  Eventually the stress and emotional tole of all my issues starts to get to me and I start bundling them all up and putting them away.  The challenges don't go away I just choose not to deal with them anymore.  I "put them on the back burner" and just let them simmer.  I go into a form of hibernation where I get up, I go to work, I go home, and I go to sleep.  I don't have anything to write about because I'm IGNORING my life.  I am choosing not to deal with it.  Even if something does happen that I would normally write about I don't because the blog in and of itself is a reminder of those things that I am currently trying to ignore.  Then, eventually, something will happen which will trigger a sudden desire to pull everything out and try again.

Now that I have discovered the problem I am still not quite sure what to do about it.  I know that logically I should try just pulling out one or two of my dormant issues and deal with them completely before moving on to the next.  But, I just don't work that way.  Everything always seems so intricately bound together.  I can start just about anywhere in my list and link everything together in a giant circle.  My weight, infertility, being a widow, depression, loneliness, lack of social skills, deeply rooted insecurities, my weight...see, I told you.  I feel like I need to deal with everything as a whole but at the same time I know from 30 years of experience that working on it as a whole doesn't work.