Anyone else hate the “what are you good at” question during an interview? You can immediately answer “what is your weakness” but dang, the opposite of what I do excel it always seems a little bit harder. Kind of reminds me on the topic for today on why we ladies don’t seem to put a priority on ourselves? We can list off 30 things in the first minute of getting asked that question. Then if someone asks so what do you do for yourself, you put your head down, scratch your head and shrug your shoulders.
Last week I discussed about not needing someone else’s permission to do the thing you want to do. Like you want to go to the gym to release some stress, then you go. I think this is where the guilt factor comes in a lot. We tend to feel like we’re putting someone else “out” in order to take care of us. We KNOW we feel better when we do the things that inspire, intrigue and push ourselves. We NEED those things. Yet, we don’t ask for them. Until we crack.
I’m the “hand raised in the air, jumping up in the air with an arrow neon sign pointing at my head” epitome of someone who would rather bottle everything up, not talk about it to my own detriment kind of person. Then someone spills milk on the floor and that’s my boiling point where I lose it over the smallest thing. In those moments, I am not a proud person when I get to that point. In those moments, my kids don’t understand that it’s because mommy hasn’t taken care of herself and I’m so stressed out that I freak out on them for spilling the milk and they then in turn feel like the worst person for making a legitimate mistake. What kind of mom am I then in that moment? Not who I want to be, not who I want my kids to think of themselves over an accident. So I have to prepare myself.
If you’ve been following me for any time then you know I love me some Rachel Hollis, author of “Girl Wash Your Face”. Rachel has a challenge that battles the very thing we’re discussing. She battled anxiety, depression, severe stress to the point where her body was having a physical reaction of vertigo when she let herself get to that point each time. So she shared with the world her five daily steps to make sure she doesn’t to that point again as well. For the third year in a row she has lead a movement to enable people to END the year with as much vigor as they start the year. She recognized that this time of year is when we tend to let anxiety and stress show up even worse in our lives because of our schedules and having more to get done. Life can be that much harder by eating ALLLLL the things, drinking ALLLL the drinks, stressing about ALLLL the activities and to do lists and just everything that encompasses the end of the year! So to overcome this do EACH of things DAILY to put your best foot forward:
- Drink half of your body weight in water in ounces.
- Wake up one hour earlier each day and do something for yourself.
- Move at least 30 minutes daily.
- Give up one food you KNOW you should not be eating
- WRITE down TEN things you’re grateful for.
So let’s break this down 1 thru 5:
- If you weigh 200lbs, you would drink 100 ounces of water. Yep, it’s a lot of water. Yep, it’s going to make for a lot of trips to the restroom. And YEP, that’s the point! Flush out those toxins! But BAM it’s simple.
- What do you do with getting up an hour earlier? Whatever you have been saying “I don’t have time for that”. So if you’ve been saying you don’t have time to work out, exercise during this time. Want to write a book, then write. Want to build your business, do some focused work. Want to decrease stress, meditate and/or spend time with God. On this note – if you have wonky hours for work or have a child still causing you to generally lose sleep at night, for goodness sake please sleep but still find some time (even if in 10-minute pockets) to take time for yourself.
- Vary up your activities in order to not become bored. If you have 90 days of daily activity, find different things to try! Let’s be honest here, we all get bored easy, so we need different things to keep us engaged! Also, let’s PLAN for backup workout sessions here! Do you love to do outdoor workouts, great! But have a backup plan of what you’ll do if it’s pouring down rain or snow come end of the year! If you don’t plan for this time and when it’ll happen it probably won’t happen – so plan it out girl!
- We all know there’s at least one category of food or drink we shouldn’t have. For my husband and I, we both spend a TON of time on the road each week for our jobs, so we are committing to giving up fast food. Not only will this help us save our bank account some but our waist lines as well! For you, it could be bread, pop, sweets, sugar, alcohol, meat, cheese, dairy – whatever you know your body doesn’t do well with! Per the Hollis’ recommendations, give up one category for 30 days consistently. So, if you end up having some goof ups in the third week, start your 30 days back over. This why it’s technically only one category for the full 90 days because we all know we’re human and generally we end up having a few slip ups before we get something down. Now, if you’ve got killer discipline and you can start a new category over each 30 days!
- The most important category of the bunch here! There is a tendency that negativity heightens around this time of year and if we let it get inside us, we end up not enjoying some of the best times with our friends and family of the year. If you know you have to write down TEN things daily that you’re grateful for, you will naturally be looking for the good in each day so you can complete your list. And while yes, it’s great to have the big things like I’m grateful for my family, I’m grateful for my home, I’m grateful for my job etc. the point of this journey is to find the SMALL things we are grateful for. The other day, we had the most beautiful sunrise – guess what, I was super grateful to get to be up and watch the sun come and capture God’s beauty. I’m grateful for the bedtime songs and stories I get to read with my kids. I’m grateful for great fall smelling candles or dried cornstalks for porch décor. Find the small things each day that you’re blessed to have in your life and I’ll assure that negativity around you won’t nearly phase you this time.
When you start doing these things and stop letting the fear of making someone else upset by what we need to do to take care of ourselves then slowly the anxiety will start to calm. The tension in your chest and neck will not show up as frequent. You will actually enjoy this season with those around you laughing instead of closed off because of the angry thoughts in your head. As much as it sucks to say, we must be accountable for what we allow to happen. So if we’re making excuses to not to the things we need to do to take care of ourselves then it’s on us. This is the time to flip the page girl.
Take Care OfYou forYOU.
