I am going to say what anyone reading this undoubtedly already knows: Life is busy. So busy, in fact, that sometimes we just can’t muster the energy at the end of the day to take care of ourselves in the way that we should.
But who am I kidding? This isn’t about you; this is about me.
I love to write. In fact, I have discovered after months of not keeping up on my blog that not only do I thoroughly miss writing and blogging, but that I am simply not functional when I skip out on this practice; even if it means staying up later and missing out on a little precious sleep. Even knowing this, somehow I allow life, schedules, stress, to-do lists to get in the way of what I most need to do to maintain my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Each day can feel like a race to the finish, and things that were once important get lost in the shuffle, especially when all you want to do is crash. And even though I know that I know better, I sometimes allow care-taker burnout to happen. You know, when your life revolves around the well-being of others so much so that you start pushing aside that really important thing you need to do “just this once.” Then pretty soon “just this once” turns into “maybe next week” and eventually into “it’s too late to do that now.” Before you know it the stress of missed opportunities seeps in and transforms a once fulfilling practice into something weighed down by the heavy baggage of resentment and regret.
Not only does neglecting my spiritual practice drag me down and stress me out, I have found that I become forgetful as my brain-space becomes cluttered and preoccupied with an epic inner tug-of-war for peace of mind.
You see, my writing process goes a little something like this:
Each day I take mental notes and file away my observations and reflections for future use (blogging). In the best of all possible worlds, I sit down in the quiet of a post-bedtime house and put it all into words. The problem is that my brain never stops taking these notes even if I never do anything with them.
Now picture a section of my brain covered with Post-It notes about big “Ah-ha” moments and earth-shattering paradigm shifts. Just go with me on this. (I would ask you to picture a file drawer, but let’s face it, even on my best days I am not that organized).
The more days go by the more Post-Its seem to litter my brain, leaving little room for other new, time-sensitive, important information, and my daughter shows up for a beloved school Pajama Day in her regular play clothes. Now not only am I stressed out, preoccupied, and forgetful, but my4 year old is heartbroken and I have nothing left to do but to leave myself an ironic Post-It note reminding myself to clear out some brainspace.
I always have great excuses for keeping these personal notes-to-self locked away in the cluttered mess of my brain, and they usually have something to do with “later.”
“The inspiration will hit me… later.”
“I’ll have time… later.”
“Things will be more quiet… later.”
Well, self, later isn’t coming. And pretty soon those Post-Its are going to be gone with the next strong breeze. Then you’re really going to miss out on some extremely important stuff that is infinitely more real than those little yellow pieces of paper you are running around trying to collect.
I am ready for a change.
About a week ago, my husband started a blog of his own sort of out of the blue. It is a lovely online gratitude journal documenting everyday events that he (we) might otherwise forget to appreciate. And so far, he has successfully written at least one post every day. It has really inspired me to get my stuff together and stop making excuses. I am not sure if this shift came about because of my competitive nature, because he just inspires me so much, or perhaps because in a moment of complete honesty he revealed to me that it was always his evil plan to kick my butt back into gear. Whatever the reason, I am ready to recommit myself to my spiritual practice, writing at least 2 times a week to start. Of course, I say this knowing that my spouse (and perhaps some of you) will hold me accountable. I have decided that while accountability can be at least a little bit scary, it is completely necessary.
I think we all need this; a support group of people who will hold you accountable to your commitments to self care. Without someone who has the audacity to hold up a mirror, it gets much too easy put ourselves last and forget to practice what we preach. We forget that we can tell our friends and family to love themselves all we want, but if we don’t show them what that means our words are lost. Taking care of ourselves means giving others the permission to do the same and it allows us to be fully present in our roles as parents, teachers, friends, neighbors.
For the foreseeable future, I am posting two times per week, and in the process I am going to do my best to shut down that little voice in my head that tries to tell me that self care is a selfish desire. I am going to nurture my spirit to recognize my worth and the worth of those around me.
I am ready to take the plunge. Who’s with me?
One of my favorite pastimes is to yell at my television and radio. Of course, the TV and radio aren’t really the subjects of my frustration; my issue generally lies with the personalities who use these poor, defenseless inanimate objects to deliver their misguided messages to the public.
live everyday and anticipating the challenges of the future. We have learned to read labels, educated ourselves about current laws and and school policies, and made sure that among our daughter’s first phrases was “I have a peanut allergy.” We have been frustrated by the lack of understanding in some, but also moved to tears by the efforts of our family and friends to ensure that our daughter would be safe and feel included in our celebrations. We have felt anger that this has had to happen to our family and then overwhelmingly fortunate that, really, things could be a hell of a lot worse.
