Hello, dear soul, and welcome to the Light Bears Library. My name is Kate Harmony. In today's journal entry, I want to talk about how we can do some emotional first aid. Now, the world outside of us, as we can all attest to, is quite chaotic. And I think that we we we can't we can't control that. We have no control over the outer chaos. But when that chaos comes into us, when we when inside of us becomes chaotic, we can work and to control that and calm that chaos. So that's one thing, one area where we can actually feel like we have some control over some, you know, some ways of of of managing chaos in our life. So I've noticed that for me in terms of emotional first aid, that my before my mind even clues into the fact that I'm you know overstimulated or over overwhelmed, or whatever that that feeling is, my my body knows it. My body feels it. So I'm I'm thinking that we need to start being much more aware of of what's happening in our body. So we can get knots in our stomach when you know something comes up in our life where we we just we kind of like curl around that knot, or something, some kind of fear comes in from something somebody says or something we've heard or whatever, or noise, a big loud noise as a highly sensitive person, that also can cause that that that sense. Um, but but this this sense inside for me is like a swirling of of of chaos and thoughts. And so, you know, it's it's it's about recognizing the signs of what's happening. And sometimes, sometimes it can even be the desire to to do our favorite addiction, right? A sudden desire to to scroll or to go on a certain website or whatever it is that that is your your go-to thing, your go-to addiction to, you know, eat food, you know, or whatever. It's like recognizing that before before we go and do the addiction, and we might, we might go and do it, you know, as a way of calming ourselves down, you know, hey. Um, but before we do that, to just notice it, to say, oh, okay, okay, okay. Um, so take take the the recognizing the wanting to do that thing as a sign that we're, you know, we need to take some first aid. And so this is kind of detective work, right? Cultivating awareness and trying to ask ourselves some questions before we do anything. Um, because, you know, my thing is that I'll I'll I'll catch myself or I'll I'll start thinking a certain thought, and that leads to another thought that's fearful or scarcity or fear-based, and then it'll lead to another one, and I'll start to spiral downward. So before we before we get into that that downward spiral, you know, we need to kind of ask ourselves some questions. Is it, you know, a certain noise in our environment that's that's causing a tension, you know, sometimes it can be an electrical sound in our environment or a click, you know, click clicking loud noises. It's like, okay. Or is it sometimes I find with like tight clothes, if I'm wearing, you know, like especially waistbands, it it can something can be just as simple as our clothes are are are uncomfortable. Is it something we ate or drank that is causing our body to feel uncomfortable? And so it's agitating us to, you know, think thoughts that that maybe have nothing to do with why we're actually feeling uncalm or like sense of chaos, but so we need to it perhaps could be nothing related to the to what we think it is. Um is it a certain channel or podcast or a fearful headline that that you saw that has now stimulated a bunch of thoughts and and fears, or perhaps it's a person in your life that you know um is yeah, maybe a fearful person or an angry person or a chaotic person. And you know, so when we when we can notice where these disturbances are coming from, then it's almost like they're the the power their power over us diminishes, like our our mind can go, okay, okay, that's why I'm feeling overwhelmed right now. So, okay, I'm I'm okay right now. Like, you know, it and when we catch when we catch that initial irritation or agitation or the the we can turn it around before it spirals down into into just meltdown territory, which we've talked about a lot on my channel. Um, you know, so we wanna because meltdowns don't don't help us, you know, they they drain so much energy when we get to that point. So the further back we can catch this, the the fur, you know, the first aid, the emotional first aid, the where we can catch it as close to the the the the initial alarm going on, something's happening, you know, that I don't that's that's not right. Um the the less energy we expend on it, you know, it's like if I catch it's like, oh, so so so the thing is, is if when we catch it and it's like, oh, these pants are really bugging me, you know, I just need to go change. And it's like, and then we changed, it's like, oh, I can breathe and things are better now, you know. Um, for instance, for me, I did stop drinking coffee this week and it's been really great. It's been really great. I kind of cut down and was half a cup, and and then I just was like, okay, I'm done. Because I realized that after drinking the coffee, it really I didn't feel well afterwards, you know. I had my heart, I could just feel my heart kind of fluttering a little bit, and my tummy would get upset sometimes in the morning, um, because I would drink on an empty tummy. And um I I just didn't feel well. And so I'm feeling much better. I have a bit of a headache today, and that could be the the pressure of snow coming and going. Um, but um it could also just be letting go of coffee. I don't know, but you know, so if it's a particular food or drink, seeing if you can take it out for a few days um and see if there's if there's a a change in your body. You know, I at some points we were my husband and I we were eating, you know, a certain kind of bread, and we were just feeling not very nice afterwards. So we cut that out and it's like, oh, I feel much better. Um and unsubscribe. Unsubscribe from fearful content and that's fear-based. So really tuning into this because this is so powerful when we start cutting out the the fear, and that's what I notice on YouTube, on podcasts. It's just because it it wants that reaction from us. It wants us to go, ooh, I need to know, you know, because when we're when we're we're always looking to to, you know, when we're fear, fearful or survival-oriented, we want to kind of know about that thing so that we can stay safe or whatever. So I just unsubscribe from all of that stuff. And even even on YouTube, you can put like, you know, click the three dots and say, I don't want to see from this channel anymore. Like if you see it on the slide or after the video or whatever, it's just like if it keeps following you around, you know. Um, but I think that's one of the most most important things that I find causes me to have that sense of overwhelm or fear is content, is things that just, and I'm I like I don't have any social media accounts, so I'm not on social media except for YouTube and Spotify. That's where I listen to podcasts and stuff. So um I'm just always mindful of of things that I'm seeing, and I'm going, oh, that's a fearful one. Okay, I'm not gonna get overwhelmed by that. Like, you know. Um, and then if it's a person, you know, this gets into creating boundaries. And I know a lot of you are are working, working on boundaries in your life and to create a bit more space in your life, a bit more peace. Because, you know, when the when the outer world is so chaotic and people are not aware of how that chaos is is impacting them personally, they can they can become quite chaotic and then take that out on other people. And then the it can, you know, if we're if we're empaths or sensitive souls, we can feel their chaos as well as the world's chaos and our chaos. So we're trying we're just like, how can we minimize this chaos? And sometimes it could just be taking a time out from a person and just sort of saying, hey, like I need the week to myself, or I've you know, I'm I'm you know, however you need to word it, you know, I never I I try never to like I don't I try n never to lie. So that's something I don't I don't do, right? You know, but there but it's I'm always mindful of how I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings either. So there's there's there's a way of saying that like I don't want to be around you this week, you know, saying like because you're chaotic and I don't want to feel your chaos, and it's like you know, it's like that might be totally the truth, but you know, it might just be a way of you know of just saying I need some space for myself to do some self-care and go for some walks on my own and I need I just need some space. And I always think that if someone in my life doesn't respect my need for to look after myself in the way that I think is appropriate for me as a sensitive person, because there's a lot of people in my life who are not sensitive people, right? Um and they're totally fine, more or less with what's going on, and they brush it off, and it's like, ah, I have a harder time doing that. So, you know, it it's it's a way of if if they don't respect your need for that, then it's like do they do they respect you as a as a as a friend or a family member even? Like it I I would not want that person in my life if they don't care about me caring for myself. So um I'd like to do another video more on boundaries and that because I I know a lot of you are struggling with that. So I'll leave it there, but I there's it noticing that that a person causes a lot of chaos in in your life, it could be a w a signal that maybe you need to put up some boundaries. Um so I would love to hear from you in the comments about what are some early warning signs that you have that you've noticed already in your life, or that you're you're starting to maybe wonder about and notice. And what are some things that you can do about those? You know, those are some thoughts. And if you have anything else to comment about that this is struck a chord with you, I would love to hear from you. Um, I'm I I just yeah, it's it's the best talking to you in the comments. So um please do give this a thumbs up if this was helpful to you and subscribe to the Light Bears Library. I would love to have you here. Okay, dear soul, I'm wishing you so many blessings. Signing off for today, XOXO Kate.