Sunday Night With John: Goodbye "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter"

Part two of "Chasing The Invisible" examines who John Paul Derryberry is halfway to seventy.  I have lived long enough to go through major life moments, but still have a long life ahead of me to figure out the greater conundrums facing my existence.

To catch up click here for part one: "I Reluctantly Admit I’m a Foodie".

http://jpderryberry.com/blog/foodie

Goodbye "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter"

I hate snakes, not because they are not beautiful creatures but because you never see them before you are standing right on top of them. That just creeps the heck out of me! It’s the only thing that makes me pause when I think about why I took up hiking as a hobby. But I do admire one great thing about snakes: their evolved ability to shed their skin. It’s a great metaphor for change, for rebirth, for evolving past one part of your life and moving into another. The snake is still the same snake, with all the same memories, instincts, and actions it had before, but it just has a brand new outer shell. It would be great if humans, who outgrew their old ways, could just shed their skin and start anew. The markings of self harm, and the scars of past life might not carry so much weight if we could just shed our outer layer.

I , too, have evolved and grown over the last six years which has caused my message to shift in a better direction. I was once driven by a singular desire: to get people to understand their own emotions better.  "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter" was my first attempt to capture the essence of what my mission was, who I was as a speaker and how I wanted the world to interact with me.  It was solid, it was powerful, and it was true. Emotions matter greatly to everyone. They drive us to great decisions, good or bad.  I have always wanted this mission to embody the truth at its core. I spent years lying to myself, to loved ones, and the world that I was emotionally stable. I learned the hard lesson of what happens to us when we forget emotions matter and we lead with lies. Often the first mistaken step down the wrong road begins with a lie we tell ourselves, a bad thought we justify, or a truth we ignore. Life can spiral out of control when it is built on a foundation of quicksand. So "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter" had to be the foundational branding of my talk because I needed to be grounded in the truth. No one can be the positive force for change they hope to be based on a lie. 

My emotional health is and always will be something I strive to be honest about. I worry about what will happen to me if I ever forget how far down the rabbit hole of depression I went before. My mental health journey taught me not to conceal my emotions. I’m happy that I no longer hide my emotions. When I’m sad, I will shed tears. When I’m excited, I will do my happy dance, elbows bowing out and all.  And, when I’m angry, I will do my best to understand it. But there is more to the message; there is more to how I connect with individuals and audiences; and there is more to me than just emotions. There is how I care for others. There is my integrity that guides me. There is great laughter, and, there is great passion for proving the impossible can be possible. It’s why I gravitate toward people, whom society has rejected, and help them show the world they do belong.  It’s why most of my interventions are based in some sort of laughter because, when the world is going to Hell , laughter is the best defense.

So "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter" must be shed, but it will still always be there at my core. It will still be the essence of every talk but there is a new version of John Paul Derryberry that must be given room to grow. So today, I tearfully thank "Share Emotions, Emotions Matter" for carrying me this far and being my guiding light. Now, it’s time for an evolved message.