Saltwater Taffy and Neural Pathways

Memorial Day, 7:30 p.m., wrapping up my younger daughter’s family birthday party and trying to hustle the littles off to bed, when my neighbor-who’s-like-family pipes up: “Uhh…your daughter dropped taffy over here and I sat in it. There’s taffy in the rug.” 

I was not looking forward to spending the next few days chipping away at this, trying fifteen different internet remedies only to be left with a sticky, smelly carpet, or one with an awkward patch where I tried to cut the tops of the rug fibers. 

But, my friends, this tale has a very happy ending. Maybe five minutes of active time, and the taffy was out! (The trick, which I hope you never need, is to freeze it with an ice pack and then scrape with a spoon.)

I thought getting the taffy out was going to be a big problem. 

It was not a big problem. 

It was a tiny problem. A blip. 

This reminded me of something I’ve been talking about with my daughter a lot lately:

Get curious before you freak out or melt down. 

(I phrase it a little differently for her.) 

Because maybe it’s not going to be a cluster. That you-can-do-better conversation with your employee about their performance. The long overdue deep-dive into your finances. Figuring out how to get insurance when you quit your job. Maybe they're blips. 

The world has felt extra heavy lately. (Again? Still?) A lot of our neural pathways for processing trauma are deeply grooved. So it can be easy to default to This is going to be terrible. 

Here’s the great news:

We have the power to strengthen neural pathways of our choosing.

I love that about us. 

So here’s my invitation to you today: Pick one new thought to practice and train a new pathway. The more you practice, the more myelin wraps around that neuron, making that thought easier to access in the future. 

Here are a few of my faves:

• What if it works out?

• What if this time it’s easy?

• What if it goes my way?

• What’s a creative solution to this?

What else appeals to you? I'd love to hear.