Unbothered people don’t allow their happiness to be determined by the actions of others.
~Unknown
Words are incredibly powerful. Think about it…just one positive or negative word can affect another person’s whole day. It can build someone up, or bring someone down. Through the course of writing our blog, engaging in research, and connecting with the diabetes community, over the past 5 years we have compiled words that align with the tenets of a solution-focused approach to care and education. Words spoken by people with diabetes in surveys, research, and focus groups. Words expressed during Twitter chats. Words written in papers. To that end, a few years back we wrote about the importance of words here. We pondered…How can we draw attention to these words and have them easily flow into conversations between diabetes care and education specialists and our clients? As a step in that direction, we wrote an entire series of blogs focused on some of these key words that inspire solution-focused thinking.
With the beginning of this new year, we decided to take inventory of the solution-focused words that we’ve addressed throughout the life of this blog, comparing them to the alphabet. To our surprise, the only letters missing were letters U, X, and Z. Those of you that know us, know we must finish what we start, and that we love a good challenge! So here we go!
U is for Unbothered
The unbothered mindset is a powerful tool to navigate the challenges or inconveniences (minor or major) of life. It can help bring peace amidst chaos and help face challenges with courage. Let’s be clear – living unbothered is NOT about NOT caring. It’s actually about caring deeply to know what truly matters and letting go of what doesn’t.
Becoming an “unbothered” person can change everything. An unbothered person is one who has learned how to be unbothered by things that bother most people. It’s recognized that living unbothered can foster:
- Resilience
- Less stress
- An inner sense of peace
We’ve been putting this solution-focused tenet into practice…
Living unbothered takes consistent practice. And in no way are we perfect at this, but we’re trying: Unbothered by waiting in the self-checkout behind someone with an entire cart of groceries, chatting on the phone with no sense of urgency. Unbothered by bottleneck rush hour traffic in the pouring rain. Unbothered by a friend taking longer to answer a text than we think it should take.
Sure, it could be easy to get wound up about any of those situations. And without a doubt, it’s difficult to be happy when you’re bothered by what’s going on around you, what others think of you, and how you react to it. Living unbothered means there are more important things to worry about. We’ve found that adopting the unbothered lens, means less stress and anxiety – and more peace.
We challenge you this week to Slow down. Be present. Be mindful. Becoming unbothered is a journey, not a destination. Let us know how it’s going.
Drop back by to check out our next two posts and how we tackle letters “X” and “Z”!
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Deb is employed by Dexcom, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.
Tami is employed by the University of Kentucky HealthCare Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.
