MacEnroe would have been proud

Last Sunday, I played tennis with some friends for the first time in years. Boy was I rusty! We were all pretty bad, but it was a really fun time. 

I took all the right precautions from a type 1 diabetes (T1D) perspective. I had a snack before and put my pump on “exercise mode” (which typically prevents low blood sugars from occurring). Since none of us were great, there was a LOT more running around and chasing the ball across the court than expected. Halfway through, my blood sugar started going low. I didn’t feel like stopping the game, but I took a quick break and chugged some orange juice and ate the snacks I brought. It did the trick and I felt ok for the rest of the game. 

After the game, we declared our victory by celebrating over brunch. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, my blood sugar was 350 with two arrows going up (if you don’t know, my blood sugar was very high, and it was going higher). I clearly had over-treated the low. 

❌ I physically felt awful. 

❌ I was so frustrated. 

❌ I thought “great, I was low when I wanted to play tennis, and now that I want to eat, I’m high”. 

The old me would have stewed for hours. But now I know – it’s my thoughts about the high blood sugar that are causing my frustration, not the high blood sugar itself. So given this information, I had two choices: 

1. Choose a new thought to see if I could make myself feel better 

2. Allow myself to be pissed I didn’t feel like feeling better. 

I decided to be mad on PURPOSE. When you ALLOW a feeling instead of resisting it, it passes through your body. The more you resist a feeling, the stronger it gets (like a petulant child). 

So, I 

✅ Ordered a no carb meal 

✅ Gave a little extra insulin 

✅ Allowed myself to be frustrated 

✅ Sat in my frustration 

✅ Watched the frustration pass 

✅ Enjoyed the rest of my brunch! 

Negative feelings pass so much faster when you feel them on purpose vs. resisting them. Isn’t that much better than stewing for hours (like I would have in the old days)? 

When I went to my mom’s to return her tennis racket, I gushed about my day and how much fun it was to play tennis again, I literally FORGOT about the diabetes incident. Until later I was like “oh, I forgot! Something happened today that now that I think about it, will make a good blog post 😊 ” #lifecoachingwithlauren 

Want to learn how to allow your emotions? Change your thoughts? Let’s chat! Lauren@LifecoachingwithLauren.com or schedule time at https://Schedulelifecoachingwithlauren.as.me/?appointmentType=24007416