Tag / emotional wellness

by yojeanyi

Decisions Are Just Bell Peppers

TIP #1: FRUIT OF THE SUMMER

look at all these delicious decisions

Crunchy and refreshing with a mild sweetness. Juicy but not sticky.

Bell peppers are fruits that can be eaten like an apple, whole or slices, and contain vitamin C and other good stuff. It always surprises me how easy they are to eat. They’re an excellent lifestyle fruit for their user friendliness.

It’s suspicious how easy they are to eat. Throw them in a backpack and they’ll be okay. Even if they are crushed, there’s only water residue- no sticky juices like those other fruits.

Maybe you prefer a dip in keeping with the settler’s summer tradition. It would be uncouth to consume a dip alone, unless it’s a light Tzatziki/ cacık dip with crushed coriander. Composed of yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, and any herbs- parsley, mint, dill– it’s wow. Munching on my bell peppers and tzaitziki dips, I have been thinking.

Despite my invisible achievements well into my third decade, I’ve navigated uncharted waters and strange crossroads. I suppose if you survive a catastrophe, that could be considered an accomplishment. Survival is not easy, yet little do we celebrate it.

Survival is not easy, yet little do we celebrate it.

TIP 2: Celebrate decisions >accomplishments > achievements

Achievements get trophies 🏆; accomplishments get checkmarks ✅; decisions get silence 🤫. Powerful decisions disappear into daily life like vegetables in vegetable chowder. You forget about them, but they’re doing all the work keeping you alive.

Decisions are harder to celebrate because they’re internal, sometimes messy and painful, and even transformative (quitting a job, leaving a relationship, starting something new).

The word “decision” comes from the latin “caedere” meaning “cutting the links.” It’s a cutting of ourselves from a “wholeness.” In the case of life, its a cutting into the wholeness of our identity and stability. Whether that’s getting out of a comfortable stagnation or an awful place, we have to slice, dice, and dip out of there ASAP. A life altering decision can suck because of the risk factor. But while there might not be reward, we need these decisions for prevention and immunity.

These “good” decisions that cut the deepest should be actively remembered in order to keep up the positive spirits; they are the silent architects of resilience, sometimes outweighing the glitter of achievements.

a beautiful user friendly decision

NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS OF DECISIONS

  • Vitamin C: One medium-sized red bell pepper provides 169% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for vitamin C, making it one of the richest dietary sources of this essential nutrient.
  • Vitamin B6: Pyridoxine is the most common type of vitamin B6, a family of nutrients important for forming red blood cells.
  • Vitamin K1: A form of vitamin K, also known as phylloquinone, K1 is important for blood clotting and bone health.
  • Potassium: This essential mineral may improveTrusted Source heart health.
  • Folate, also known as vitamin B9, has a variety of functions in the body. Adequate folate intake is very importantTrusted Source during pregnancy.
  • Vitamin E: A powerful antioxidant, vitamin E is essential for healthy nerves and muscles. The best dietary sources of this fat-soluble vitamin include oils, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.
  • Vitamin A: Red bell peppers are high inTrusted Source pro-vitamin A (beta carotene), which your body converts into vitamin A.
by yojeanyi

Pro Tip: Throw a Tantrum (how to get relief when you’re overwhelmed)

1: It was always you

Family, friends, community — they’ve been there at times, and completely absent at others. Your mom nursing your flu, your dad explaining the same math problem for the fifth time, your brother laughing after you tumbled from the tree, fracturing a foot. There were the friends who waded with you through awkward growing pains and heartbreaks– who you could laugh with years later.

School was to glide us into work, life, and the trimmings of adulthood. When that didn’t quite happen — and the inherited world clashed with our lived reality — who carried you through the confusion?

You.

It was always you. The “support network” was training wheels, sometimes swapped for another set on a fancier vehicle.

Relationships matter — they keep us from becoming an echo chamber. But there’s a point of diminishing returns when social exchanges become wholly transactional or obligatory… it’s time to move on or take a break. We require self-preservation, especially if we were the responsible one, a parentified child, running interference to keep peace.

Unfortunately, the most in need of self-awareness are ones pushing uninformed agendas. So if it’s always been you, then what’s your obligation? To carry yourself when no one else can. Sometimes that means retreating.

A: Permission to retreat; throw a tantrum

The polemics and lightning polarization in today’s world make the sentiment of a tantrum unsavory. The “tantrum” here is inward-facing, not outward-destructive. If you had to keep your composure while people around you do un-people things, you deserve space and time for letting go.

Retreat, decelerate, and when you hit zero, see what’s left: tired, sore, sad, pissed? Do what you need to recoup — even if it means throwing a tantrum with admission for one. Think about it like a complete acceptance of all the debase emotions we are told to keep under a rock.

Contemporary society issues adults a behavioral script expecting stoicism and discouraging engagement with so-called “inferior” emotional states. These would be: bitterness, anger, resentment, melancholy, envy, fear, shame, self-pity, loneliness, despair, frustration, etc. They are socially coded as unproductive, unattractive, and regressive, even though they’re just as biologically hardwired and meaningful as joy, love, or excitement.
So suppressing natural affective responses — some of which may present as petulant or deflective — we risk long-term emotional ossification. This has demonstrably backfired.

How many people do you know who never nurture their inner child, live it shamelessly in public?

B. Methods of tantrum/self-indulgence

Toddlers are well documented for their sophisticated tantrums, directed outward for attention. Adults, however, rarely deploy such techniques for personal welfare. Bask in glorified self indulgence because who will do it for you if not yourself?

Personally, I conduct a full-day incommunicado: digital blackout, emptying of emotional receptacles while performing floor-based kinesthetic movements, such as rug angels. Whatever your method, make it 100%. Pay attention to every feeling on the “feelings spectrum” and tantrum responsibly. For example, anger points to boundaries crossed. Envy reveals what we secretly desire. Shame shows us where we’ve confused mistakes with identity. Melancholy and grief remind us of what we’ve loved.

Let them breathe responsibly without weaponizing them at others, and they become signals, stepping stones for a decluttered forward path.

So call it whatever you want. Let you reclaim yourself. It’s always been you, and it still is.

-Noon Mul 😉