Feeling Overextended – Pay Yourself First

Are you feeling pulled in a million different directions?

You wake up before you’re ready. The clock says a number that can’t possibly be right, and yet, it is. Time to get up again.

You feel like you just went to sleep and yet, it’s time to start a new day. You have no energy, yesterday drained everything out of you, you feel like you can barely stand up.

But . . . you do.

You get up, jump in the shower, for a split second the water revives you and you think, “I can do this.”

As you’re getting ready to go wherever you need to be, work, or dropping the kids off at school maybe, you try to eat some food but end up barely getting some coffee and grab your stuff for the day and dash out the door.

Dash out the door just to be sitting in a standstill of traffic that will probably make you late. Again.

You get to work, do whatever is asked of you there, wondering how your eyes are even open, your brain functioning and your legs still putting one foot in front of the other. But they are and do. Somehow some way.

When you get home you think it’s finally time to crash, time for YOU, but you’re wrong again. The kids want food, need help with homework, there’s laundry to be done, bills to pay and the house looks like no one has cleaned it for a decade.

You look in the mirror and see a glazed-over zombie with no expression. Not even a frown because honestly, that would take far too many muscles.

You wonder, “How is this my life? How am I going to wake up tomorrow and keep doing this over and over again when I feel like collapsing now?

Where is the fun, where is the adventure, where is the much-needed break?’

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

Do you constantly hear, “Mom (or Dad) can you…(fill in request here)?”

Do family or friends or your boss always need something from you?

Do you ever take any ME time for yourself?

If any of this rings true for you I want you to STOP. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you.

I want you to feel and hear your heart beating, consciously take a deep breath and count silently to yourself as you breathe it in slowly, hold it, and then breathe it out.

I want you to STOP. I want you to realize that regardless of how it all seems right now, what you are going through, what you are doing or not doing is a choice.

It might not feel like a choice, but it is a choice. And it’s something YOU chose.

Where you are is based on what you did or what you chose in order to be there. It’s not always going to be fun and games, that’s for sure. Like everything else, life is a balance, it’s a juggle, it’s made up of both good and bad, fun and challenging.

BUT if you feel like you’re life is out of balance, that it is more bad than good, more challenging than fun, I want you to ask yourself:

What can I change that will help put my life back in balance?

What can I actively DO to make this happen?

Because trust me, there is a way to do it. There is a way to wake up feeling refreshed, to look in the mirror and see a smiling human being smiling back at you.

There is a way to take vacations, take more ME times, do more fun things. It might not seem like it right now, in fact, it may seem utterly impossible.

But it IS possible and I want to show you how.

I want to show you how to STOP more often and choose yourself instead of always feeling bulldozed by your day.

I want to show you that regardless of your circumstances or obligations that there is a way to shift things ever so slightly to allow some light in.

Feeling your being, your calm, true self that is always with you is a conscious effort. It is no different from the will that somehow gets you out of bed in the morning when you are dead tired.

It is no different than the choice you made to pick up that extra shift, run that errand or do that favor.

It is simply a choice you are not making. You are not paying yourself first. And I don’t mean monetarily. Which is also good to do by the way, and yet most forget to do that too.

No, I mean pay yourself first emotionally, physically, spiritually.

Somewhere along the way in life, we were not taught to take care of ourselves in the most basic, raw and necessary ways.

We were not taught how to get enough sleep. How to eat the right foods. How to exercise in a way that makes us happy and is good for us.

Why did going to the gym and doing workouts you hate even become a thing?

I say, exercise, but do what you LOVE. Find something you enjoy. And do that. It is possible. There are a million choices.

Stop letting GUILT run your life. Because let’s face it, guilt is why you picked up that extra shift, guilt is why you are exercising for hours when you hate it, guilt is why you ate that bad thing . . . but then spent weeks eating things you hate.

Guilt is why you drop everything for everyone and leave your passions on the wayside. But what good is this really doing the world?

What good can come from you being so overextended that you have nothing left to give the world except an unhappy, exhausted, angry zombie?

You have gifts. You have wonderful things the world needs. I want you to start choosing YOU more and unbury those things that you thought were long lost. Because they aren’t.

This is YOUR life. Start making choices that lead you down paths that will lead you to even more paths. You’ll not only get UNSTUCK and break free from the routine that is slowly killing you inside, but you’ll start giving back to the world the gift of YOU. And this wonderful cycle will open doors to amazing things you have yet to even imagine.

Please write to me today and tell me what your typical day and week looks like. What routine are you stuck in? Let’s find out what changes you can make that will make not only a world of difference to you but will bring a huge difference to the world.

Your friend,
Kat
nurturingyourbody.com

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