Just Pick Up the Sock
Posted on August 24, 2014 by Pamela Thorp, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Overwhelm is a common (and natural!) human state that is epidemic in this era. Plant this seed and water it. Small steps add up to big gains.
Decades back I was going through a difficult time. I was depressed, confused and probably devastated by my most recent romance gone bad. Even though I was gainfully employed as an actress on Broadway, a seemingly ideal ticket to happiness for a young performer, my life was anything but.
I would lay around for hours a lethargic lump, chastising myself between naps. But the head-lectures only served to glue me to the bed (or sofa) even more firmly. It all felt too overwhelming to face. Somehow by late afternoon I could pull it together enough to go on with the show but the whole cycle would resume again the next day when I woke up to face another one.
My wonderful analyst and I discussed my depression endlessly but I could not seem to locate the energy or inclination to change a thing. I loved my therapy which gave me support and allowed me to understand things from so many angles—but I remained ‘stuck in the muck’.
One day, hours after my optimistic clock radio once again tried to rouse me, I was lying there staring at the ceiling with ‘the lecture’ playing fortissimo in my head. At some point my eyes fell to the floor beside my bed where a pile of clothes lay. Amid the listless heap a sock stood out, a blue sock, and suddenly a thought struck like a corny bolt of lightening: Just pick up the sock. It seemed so clear, so….possible! And so I got up, picked up one sock, and thus started a simple chain of energy that led me back to life and has become a mantra that has lifted me through many difficult moments since.
Since those days I have become a successful Psychoanalyst and Motivational Coach and have studied and trained at advanced levels, which has given me an understanding of the human experience from sophisticated perspectives. This has greatly benefitted me and served those I help well. But I often return to the basic tenet I discovered all those years ago. When you feel in that overwhelmed, stuck place and don’t know which way to turn: Just pick up the sock.
