Shake it Off

 Taylor Swift is brilliant. Period. And her new song, along with its epic music video, has completely sealed her spot on the top of my “cool list.” You see, unlike most twenty somethings, Taylor has uncovered a piece of wisdom that most people don’t discover until late adulthood. It’s something so simple, and so essential to our happiness; I sometimes wonder why more people don’t advocate for it.

This is how we LOVE life! No shame, baby!

Shake it off.

Admittedly, sometimes shaking it off isn’t as simple as it sounds. Sometimes our feelings are hurt, someone lets us down or life catches up to us at an inopportune moment. When those things happen, our first thought is rarely, “Wow, that was a shame, I guess I’ll get over it now.” Typically, as humans, and albeit, women, we get emotional in situations like this. Why? Because it’s a natural reaction to stress. Our initial response to stress is a reflex, and almost always something we cannot control.

For example, a small child who falls off of her bike may cry instantaneously! The tears are instigated by fear, the impulse reaction to what happened. However, if she sits there for a moment and realizes that she isn’t actually injured or in any danger, she’ll calm down.

You see, we can’t control our immediate response to what happens to us. Whether the emotion is fear, despair, joy, dread, sadness, excitement, etc. That first initial shock happens with or without our consent.  What we can control is the next thing that happens. How we react to certain situations is completely in our control. Hopefully you will have more joys and excitements than fear or anger.  However, when those situations present themselves to you, and your initial shock has worn off, do your best to make like Taylor Swift, and “Shake it Off.” I promise, doing this will save you energy, heartache and pain. 

And when it get’s difficult to shake it off, go ahead and dance along to Taylor’s music video… that is sure to help get anyone out of a funk. Life is way to great to waste it holding on to bad mojo!

Taylor Swift- "Shake It Off"

Love True,

Allison