The blankets felt divine as I wrapped myself in them and slunk back into bed.
The air was crisp. But my bed was still warm and I almost can’t describe the feeling of bliss as I returned to my cocoon.
I had managed to think ahead and had also brought my delicious, chocolate flax brownie that tasted more like decadent birthday cake than a simple morning muffin.
As I took my first bite and savored the rich, chocolate I thought, “my God, I love my life right now.”
Now before you say you hate me, let me tell you my week was no picnic. I certainly don’t have mornings or moments like this all of the time.
This one particular moment inspired me to write this, however, because of how my week went.
So let’s backtrack a moment. My week was composed of stressful traffic, rude customer service reps, a sick child, work and very little sleep.
That’s not always my life. I usually try to have a little more balance and less icky stuff. But as you probably know, we don’t always get to choose everything and sometimes those icky moments just are.
They are happening and we have to deal with them.
This is true, however . . . looking back on my not so balanced week I realized something. Some of those things I went through were my choice. Perhaps not entirely, but when I chose to do them WAS my choice.
I could have chosen to deal with some of the things later and created more balance for myself. More mornings like the one I described above.
And that’s when it hit me. How often we choose the bad over the good. Sometimes because we feel like we have to.
But if you dig down deep I think you’ll discover that literally your current circumstance is because of a choice you made.
The busy, stressful lifestyle that many Americans live is a choice too.
Let’s say you had enough. And you decided to enter a contest and win an inn and move to New Zealand (yes, I just watched this movie), don’t you think that maybe then your life would look dramatically different?
Some people want the busy, stressful, always on the go lifestyle. Everyone is built differently. That decision is for you and you alone to make for yourself.
If you find, however, that you would prefer a more laid back and simple existence, then perhaps you need to change your surroundings. Move to a new city or new country. Drastic. But totally a possibility.
Maybe you don’t want to go as drastic as that, but you are fed up with how stressful your days are and you yearn for a morning like the one I just had.
What changes can you make right now to your life in order to make that happen?
The goal can vary, the incentive can vary. The ultimate purpose and reason for what you want are for you to decide.
What is it you need? What is lacking in your life? What GOOD is missing?
And how can you eliminate some bad to make room for more good?
Even if you don’t think this is possible right now, your day is packed, your life is swamped, bombarded, hijacked it seems, I assure you that anything is possible.
All you have to do is figure out what it is you want and then you will be able to find a way to get it.
Personally, I want more mornings like that one I just had.
So I’m making some changes. Instead of booking myself out months in advance trying to squeeze everything in. I’m booking out my ME time too.
I’m paying myself first. Not in a greedy way, but in an essential way. I’m bringing more balance to my life so that I can bring forth my BEST self.
Because I can assure you, the tired, grumpy stressed out version of me is NOT who I want to be.
Last week really showed me that. And when I realized that ultimately I had chosen that path, you can bet I made some changes, immediately.
I had already started to schedule monthly massages. They are nice and helpful but you know what happened?
They backfired. They started being something I HAD to do for myself. And now they are just another obligation on my calendar that takes me away from what I REALLY want to do. So . . . I’m still going to have them, but I’m going to schedule them only when they work for me. And if they aren’t able to do that I will skip it that month.
I found I cannot always be on someone else’s time schedule. That really drags me down and keeps me from feeling refreshed, inspired and motivated to complete my projects.
I’m currently producing my next 2 albums, a total of 23 songs that were written over the last 8 years. I’ve been producing them for over a year now and I’m definitely feeling burnt out.
Then I realized something. As much as I want to complete the project, there is no point in working myself so hard that the albums are less than they can be. There is no need to put such pressure on myself.
The beauty of what I do is supposed to be that I do it when I want to. When I choose to.
I will make time and I will make progress. But I will not put unnecessary stress on myself. There is no rush.
Just like there is no rush to check everything off of your to-do list. Check them off in a fashion that still allows you to live your best life.
Pay off your debt, but pay it off in a stress-free way.
You can’t pay everything all at once. You can’t DO everything all at once. So don’t even try. And don’t THINK you have to, that stress is such a stupid and unnecessary stress.
There is a way to complete everything, do everything, and have time for more with simple time management and proper choices.
Choose the GOOD more often, choose YOU more often and see what happens!
Your friend,
Kat
nurturingyourbody.com
Leave a reply