The Excitement Zone
A couple of years ago, when my oldest son Nolan was struggling in school, he was in a social group the special ed teacher was leading. During this group, she taught them about the zones of regulation. This concept classifies emotions into 4 categories (Red = Stop, danger zone; Green = Go, safe to proceed; Blue = Time to rest and replenish; and Yellow = Slow down, caution). Typical examples of red emotions are anger and fear, green emotions are calm and content, blue emotions include tired and sad, and yellow feelings are frustrated and worried.
I remember on this day Nolan was super excited, and I said something to point this out. He replied “Oh excited…caution! Excited is in the yellow zone.” I had a very strong reaction to this, thinking, shouldn’t he be excited? He’s a kid. What’s wrong with being excited? Is excitement really in the same category as frustration and anxiety? Huh?
Fast forward to now, and I’ve recently come to see the benefit to recognizing excitement as an indicator it’s time to slow down. If you read my last post, you know I’ve been painting and redesigning my studio space. Still am. Doing it in very small steps has ensured constant progress and yet not barreling forward to finish it. And I am not gonna lie, that is hard for me. And you know why…excitement! I tend to get really wrapped up in projects. As a teenager and college student, I stayed up til the AM hours often, working on art + design projects or studying for tests. And in my adulthood, I have had the same hyper-focus when I have a big project to do. In many cases, I’ve lost sleep and dropped the everyday life maintenance tasks that are essential for me to thrive. So often I’ve gotten to the end of a project only to be utterly depleted, needing desperately to tend to my basic needs. I wonder if any of you can relate?
I was experiencing this jittery feeling this morning, before sitting down to write. I felt so excited about the new equipment I got in for my natural dye space, and could think of about 10 turtle steps (or rather, big ole bunny leaps) I was anxious to get to. Only, I had this time carved out for writing. I thought about scrapping my writing plans and just taking those big leaps. Then I got that wave of emotion that feels like my face smacking against plate glass and then a sinking in my gut, the one I get when I find new awareness about my own habitual patterns. I recalled Nolan teaching me that excitement was a yellow zone emotion. And wow, I realized, I had something important to write, affirming that I didn’t want to dive headfirst into the deep end of excitement.
I’ve always thought of excitement as fantastic, because it’s a clue you’re following your heart and living your passions. Yet, I realized that for me, I often use excitement as an excuse to neglect the other areas of my life that are also very important to me. I realized that excitement feels really good in my body, so I actually benefit greatly from prolonging it as long as possible, versus rushing through and leaving the situation with lack (lack of energy, lack of enthusiasm, lack of anticipation). So, I’d add to the instructions for this yellow zone emotion, caution, slow down, and ENJOY. So here’s an invitation to savor the excitement, stretch it as long as you can, take the tiny steps, pay attention to the things excitement is enticing you to neglect.
As always, thank you for being here and allowing me to share with you these tidbits from my own growth journey.
So much love to you!
Xoxo,
Rebecca