This turned into a glorious Sunday. Today was suppose to be errands and running around but has turned into relaxing on the couch, watching the snow fall! The weather folks were only calling for a coating but now we are in the 3-6” range! Add the Christmas decorations and it’s just magical. We’ve already had hot chocolate and may light up the fire place tonight. Gotta get in all the snow day classics!
It’s a great day for catching up and doing some writing. I mean it’s hard to not feel inspired! The snow has a calming almost hypnotic presence to me. Everything slows down. Everyone has to slow down. We all hunker into ourselves, our homes, our families. It’s one of those moment where you can’t find an excuse not to relax because the magic of the day calls for it! Maybe relaxing is baking cookies or watching a movie or writing a blog post. All you know is, today the snow says you have to do it because snow days are a rare magic day where anything is possible. (What you haven’t seen the movie Snow Day?)
My relaxing is writing today. Tom is saving the Caribbean on xbox. Ganon and the cats are all sleeping (well, thats an everyday thing for them but still). We’re all basking in the thrill of a forced down day we’ve all needed for a while. You know how it goes, life gets busy, you fit everything you can into a schedule and before you know it, your exhausted and falling into bed at night not knowing what you did that day. That’s what got me to my monday post about not taking care of myself. Thats why this day is extra special in our house. We both need it!
I’ve been thinking about how to take care of myself better all week. I hit a block so I put it out to the universe to help me with. Shine a light baby! Finally on friday, when I gave it some space, I got an answer…
Girl to start, you need to stay in the present!
I am a compulsive planner and organizer. I like knowing whats going on and making sure I can fit everything into my schedule. (When I was a kid I hated to nap because I didn’t want to miss anything!) It also helps you get crazy amounts of things done. However, not great for being spontaneous and If you’re always looking ahead, it’s hard to stay in the moment. The busier and more stressed I get the less I feel like I’m staying in the moment. I start to worry about all the possible outcomes and end up getting home after work, not remembering driving home. I’ll have spent the entire drive worrying about the past and the future. Here’s the thing about that… You can’t control either of those. You can only make choices and decisions about where you are right now. So yeah, use the past and future to help you make choices but then put them aside and stay int he moment. Things will work out and when the time comes to make your next decision you’ll do it with the knowledge you have then.
Staying in the present lets you let go of the fear of what will happen or worrying about things that happened in the past that you can’t change. Today is a great example… We had plans to get a bunch of errands done today, including the grocery store. Once it started snowing, I could have freaked out because we wouldn’t get all our errands done, wouldn’t have groceries for the week, ect) Instead, I said, the snow is happening and its beautiful. We have food enough for tonight and tomorrow, I can go later this week. It will work out. Now, I can be int he present and enjoy today. No guilt either about not accomplishing everything. I know it will get done eventually.
The second part of staying present that pretty much goes hand in hand is accepting where you are:
This was a revelation to me. You are exactly where you should be in your journey. You can’t compare yourself to a past version of yourself or a future version that hasn’t happened yet. This hits home for me in coaching and my health. I keep comparing myself to what I see as a healthier version of me from back in college. Since I’m not in the same physical shape now, I see myself as failing at getting healthy. The truth is I’m working on it. I’m learning about my body now and what it needs. Im doing my best to give it that. The results will come. I also am not in college anymore. I don’t currently have hours of time to hit the gym or enough time to fully destress and just hang out. Life has changed and I have changed. That is okay. Actually, its awesome because that means this is a new journey. I’ve never worked on getting this version of me healthy before so anything goes!
This same concept applies to my coaching practice. I’m working really hard to get things going, to blog, to do classes, to coach. I can’t compare myself to the coaches I admire or anyone else. There is no race, no competition. I will get where I’m gong at my own pace and when I’m suppose too. This is my journey and I am the only one who can live it. As your journey is yours and yours and yours alone too.
Doesn’t that make you feel better? You are where you are. Thats it! Be nice to yourself. You are doing what you need to do to move forward and you’ll get there in your own time. If you have a snow day today, enjoy it and if you don’t pretend you do!
Need soem cute puppy?…. Snowmaganon