Reawaken Your Life

I've been promising a series of posts about my breakdown and waking up experience, but I want to throw in a couple more pre-remarks. When we are exhausted, lose our compassion and feel hopeless, we acclimate to the climate of this dark and dreary existence. We may not realize that this is not "us." Maybe we think this is the way life works. I want you to hear me: this is NOT true. There may be many reasons we feel "off" or bad, and I'm not suggesting that my "off" is the same as yours. I do not know what your pathway through the tunnel and back into the light might look like or what you need.

I just want you to know that you may need to reawaken to your life and it may take a LOT more time, effort and exploration than feels reasonable to you. Also, I do not want you to look for the magic bullet because I do not think there is one. I suspect that it is more likely a series of small steps forward, backward, to the left, to the right, over and under and around.

When my mother died my body tried to tell me that this was not a normal grief process. My usually sturdy, healthy body got sick. I caught every virus that floated in the environment. My joints felt creaky, my workouts were half-hearted. My sleep was off. I asked my husband, "Do you think I will ever feel happy again?"

I started my road to recovery by finding a primary care physician who believed in wellness. This required spending money on myself, lots of bloodwork, a nutritionist, an exercise guru and more. It was a decent start but did not immediately come with a side order of joy. What it did accomplish was return my body to a baseline of wellness with a regular monitoring system to warn me if something physically was moving in an unhealthy direction. I also found encouragement. My physician, looking at my numbers, asked me if I practiced mindfulness and meditation and I said, "I do." She told me that my cortisol reflected my good work in that area.

I was practicing my self-care routine even though it did not FEEL like it was helpful. Hearing that my body was getting the message even if my emotions were not exactly falling into line was an encouragement. Who knows if I could have sustained the efforts around self-care without my physician's encouragement?

When you consider human giving and human being - obviously, balance is key. How is your balance? Does one need more attention than another right now in your life?

Take a Break!

Do you ever feel under attack? Do you wonder what the world is coming to? For all of us who are paying attention and finding plenty to be concerned about, I offer you this-look around.

Pay attention to the little people in our lives - make sure they see our eyeballs and our smiling faces! No little people in your life? Can you find a way to volunteer or support folks who have lots of littles and maybe could use a break?

Find a way to give back. Not something big or dramatic, that is neither sustainable or necessary. Calls, texts, notes, taking road trips down memory lane - it's all uplifting!

Treat yourself. Sure, we are all aware of the value of eating healthy and exercising but once in a while, enjoy the pure pleasure of an ice cream cone on a hot summer's day or a glass of ice tea in your best crystal!

Rest. Take breaks. Go for a drive. Change your scenery. I love to grab a latte and take a 20 minute drive down by the river in the middle of the day just to reset my compass and clear my mind. Work a puzzle or take up crosswords! Try something new without worrying about being good at it!

Come over and play pickle ball with Pete and I - the net is always up and we are always looking for a good game.

What else could you add to this list? Who could you add to your adventures?