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Overcoming Emotional Jet Lag

Posted by Lisa Hendey in Just me on Monday, February 06, 2012 12:00 PM

Today, I’m sending out a huge thanks to the world’s best editor, Mrs. Danielle Bean, for her patience with my inability to post last week as scheduled while I was tromping around Israel. Despite my plans, technology and time conspired against me and I wasn’t able to share as much of the trip “live” as I had hoped. For those who want to know more about my adventures, I will be posting an ongoing series of recap articles over at CatholicMom.com.

Today marks my first real “back to work” day after a weekend spent catching up with my family and trying to recuperate from the twelve hour time change and 25 hour travel adventure to get home. As I sit here in my office, with a “to do” list a mile long, it’s all I can do to keep my thoughts focused on the tasks at hand. Just last Monday, I was kneeling in prayer at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, hovering in awe over the spot where our Savior is believed to have been born. That was simply one profound opportunity along a seven day path that had us retracing Christ’s life from the Annunciation through the sites of His public ministry and finally to Jerusalem, where He suffered, died and rose again. As friends who have visited the Holy Land in the past shared with me, I will never read the Gospels with the same perspective again. Even yesterday, sitting in Mass and listening to Mark’s gospel about Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, I thought to myself, “Last week, I was standing in that very spot!”

I have had so many amazing adventures in my life, but very few—if any of them—can compare to the joy I felt journeying in Israel. I am now greedy for a prompt and longer return visit, and can’t wait to one day share that amazing destination with my husband and sons.

But today, I’m called to get my head back in the game. While my biological clock continues to be a bit askew, what’s plaguing me more is the “emotional jet lag” that has me experiencing cognitive dissonance every time I do something like try to go shopping at the grocery store… Physically, my body is back to normal, but emotionally, my soul is still on fire and my emotions are very raw.

I’m sharing this with all of you in the hopes that there are some of you who have gone through similar periods in your own lives and might like to share them here in the comments. Have you had a recent or past “summit” moment in your life that was the joy of a lifetime, followed by an immediate return to “normal life” (whatever that is…)? Perhaps this was following the birth of one of your children, a retreat experience, or the death of a loved one. What helped you to transition back to everyday responsibilities with a good attitude while not losing sight of the spiritual depths you’d experienced along the way?

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Present at a Martyrdom

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