if you mean “right NOW”, i’m going to need a little time to check in with my body, brain, and emotions.
if you mean “in general, today / this week”, pull up a chair because we’re gonna need a LOT of time.
i’m mostly convinced, at this point, that the simple act of deciding how to answer the question (good or bad, busy or tired, fine or meh) directly changes my day (or week).
right now, i’m experimenting with simply refusing to answer the question. i’ve got a couple easy responses that seem to fill the expected answer-space just fine.
how are you?
- “i don’t really know how to answer that question, but it’s not a bad thing.”
- “i am enormous—life just keeps going in every direction.”
- { what’s a good response you’ve found? send it to me! }
the point here is not to suggest using either answer i’ve drafted.
the point is to consider the possibility that our brains are, indeed, very powerful at pattern-seeking, and therefore attempt to explore ways to be more careful about the patterns we let it find.