Releasing Left-Overs
You have completed the first full week of January and hopefully you are back into a somewhat normal routine. The holidays are fun and enjoyable, but bring along with them the disconnect of a regular schedule. The month of December is filled with opportunities and obligations for social gatherings and other events calling our name to attend – so we do!
Along with the craziness of your schedule comes the holiday foods and beverages which gets your eating programs all out of whack and probably your exercising as well. Oh yes, then there’s the change in your sleep schedule especially if you have house guests, whether it’s family or friends, you are probably getting up earlier and staying up later!
That often leads to you not being your sharpest.
This week I’m suggesting that you pause for a few minutes to determine what is left-over from all the various holiday events, foods, lack of sleep and anything else you can think of. Maybe since you ate a lot you think it’s the immediate time to start a vigorous exercise campaign . . . possibly, but what else can you do? Look at your meal plan for this week, where can you make changes to get yourself back to eating well again.
Perhaps your issue is exhaustion and being sleep deprived, where and how can you manage to get some rest? You can make up for you already lost, but planning some self-care will be helpful. Can you schedule with your husband or a fried or possibly hire a sitter to take your children to the park (or some place that makes sense in your climate) while you nap. When you do that do NOT do something active – either take a nap or a nice bubble bath to relax. Spend an hour or more dedicated to YOU.
Another left-over that comes up too is the left-over conversations that were held where it didn’t work out that well. There are still some issues that need to be resolved – what can you do about that? The best suggestion I have there is take some perspective of what went on, the context of the event / situation, and determine if anyone was bringing up stuff from the past, etc. Then realize that in these situations most of us are on edge trying to put on a perfect meal or other event and are sometimes hanging on by a thread to keep emotions in check while giving so much of ourselves. I’ve certainly been in that situation and lost total control, lashed out and behaved badly. It wasn’t pretty!
If you are in or witnessed a situation such as that, doing some Heart-Focused Breathing is the best approach (I wish I had known about this back then). It releases the stress of the situation. Do LOTS of Breathing! Then one more thing I will add to that a great affirmation from my friend Lauren McLaughlin, author of several books: “I AM who I AM and I allow others to be who they are.” You can only control yourself, not anyone else.Let go of all those left-overs you don’t need rotting in your week and first month of 2019.
As always, if I can be of assistance, please let me know! Happy New Year!