Find out what Diabetes Blog Week is all about. Check out the topics for each day’s posts, and even see a list of this year’s participants. Thank you, Karen!

The question I’m answering today? What’s in my diabetic closet that needs to be cleaned out?

There are a few different directions I could take here, but I really like the angle around diabetes emotions.

My head is a mess. And I’m afraid to dig in and look at it.

What do I mean? I don’t think I’m sick in the head, but to some degree, I think we’re all a little crazy from living with diabetes. There are things I do, repeatedly, that just don’t make sense logically. Like my unbalanced diet. There are psychological issues at the root of my eating behaviors that I’m just afraid to deal with, even though I know I should.

I think of it like a big, chaotic garage or old basement that needs to be cleaned out. Lots of dark corners full of giant spiders, messy stuff, and things I don’t know what to do with.

Not my basement… or my head. But it could be.

Dig in, investigate, shine a light

I worked with some terrific coaches over the years, and I wish everyone could have someone in their corner helping them (somewhat) objectively explore self-improvement.

I learned that it takes a long time.

I learned that there are no shortcuts.

I learned that it is really hard work.

I learned that it can be exhausting.

And I learned that even the darkest, scariest corners of my mental messy garage weren’t that bad once I really got in there and started sorting things out, squashing bugs, and cleaning up debris.

If I slowly attack one messy section of my mind at a time, with reasonable expectations (and asking for help when needed), who knows what my garage might eventually look like…

I can dream, right?

This is part of Diabetes Blog Week, where a standard set of prompts encourages a ton of really great blog posts from around the community. Here’s today’s prompt: “Yesterday we kept stuff in, so today let’s clear stuff out.  What is in your diabetic closet that needs to be cleaned out?  This can be an actual physical belonging, or it can be something you’re mentally or emotionally hanging on to.  Why are you keeping it and why do you need to get rid of it?  (Thank you, Rick, of RA Diabetes for this topic suggestion.)”