MM Ep 47: Warning Labels

We play with a bold idea: imagine if we had medication-style warning labels that listed our “side effects” in friendships, relationships, and work. We use that thought experiment to spot triggers, own our patterns, and lower the harm when stress, anxiety, or lack of sleep shows up. 
• The medication commercial metaphor and what it reveals about self-image 
• Imagining the “warnings” others might read in us 
• Spotting triggers that lead to anxiety, spirals, or shutdown 
• Stress and sleep as common causes of reactive behavior 
• Making side effects less extreme through therapy, friends, and self-development 
I challenge you to write those some of those warnings or side effects down that you might currently have. And where can you start to reduce those so they're not so extreme? 

https://aarondegler.com/

Transcript

Welcome To A Mindful Moment

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to a mindful moment. Thank you for taking a moment to join me today. What if we walked around all day, every day, with warning labels across our forehead? If you ever watched the commercial on the commercial that that for a medication, it tells you maybe 30 seconds of commercial is about what the medication can do. Then the other one minute or minute and a half of the commercial is about all the side effects, all the warnings, all the things that go with it. What if we were like that? What if we said, hey, I want to be your friend? I have, I can be a good friend, and you know, you tell them all the things, or hey, I want to be in a relationship with you, or hey, I want to work here. And we tell them the good things about us, what we can do, and all those. And then after we do that, our warning label comes up and they read our warning label, go, ooh, oh, I don't want any part of that. That doesn't seem like anything that interests me. And thank goodness we don't walk around with a warning label on us of the side effects that we may cause other people or cause things. Uh, thank goodness we don't have that. But my challenge kind of is is what would your warning label be? What would it say? What would the side effects be that are listed on there? And that's kind of the challenge is if you were to write those warnings out that for other people to see that you were warning others or the side effects, what would those be? And then would those be some areas that you could start paying attention to, start focusing on? How do I make those warnings a little bit better? How do I fix those side effects? Maybe, maybe it's you you get in a relationship and then things happen, you start to spiral, and you get anxiety and you get worried, and you and you see those things, those are side effects of different triggers that you have. And or it's a warning of, you know, when I'm too stressed, this is how I act, or if I haven't had enough sleep, this is how I act. And if those are some of the things that you come up with, and and it's probably pretty easy to think of some really easy warnings or side effects. But if you think about them, what are some of the really ones that would be like kind of like when you watch the commercial? Might be medication for heartburn, but some of the side effects are could cause death, could cause paralysis, just, and I don't know if that's true, it's just some out there things. So, what are those things that could cause more harm would be your warnings or side effects? And maybe those are some of those things that you start working on. Taking time, learning how to work through those. Maybe it's with a friend, maybe it's with some therapy, what maybe it's with some self-development. There's a lot of different things. But the challenge is what would that be? And where could you start on working on those? That that warning label gets a little less. Those side effects get a little less. Will they go away? No, because we are human and our warnings and side effects will never go away. But the hope is that we can lessen them. So if it's on the medication and we see on TV, maybe it's just an upset stomach. Maybe it's some sweats. I mean, something that is way better than the extreme of death, in just an extreme example. But what are, you know, those aren't going to go away, but how can we make them a little bit less, not as extreme? And so I challenge you to write those some of those warnings or side effects down that you might currently have. And where can you start to reduce those so they're not so extreme? Thank you so much for joining me on Mindful Moment. I look forward to seeing you right here next time on a Mindful Moment.