Find Your Happy Medium in De-Stressing
By Kerry on October 21, 2019
Quote of the Week
“Rest, Restore, Connect, Create.”
Rhythms of Renewal
StoryBrand is a business podcast I listen to. I love StoryBrand because the host, Donald Miller, brings books to life by asking real questions that you cannot ask the author when you’re reading the book yourself.
One of his more recent guests, Rebekah Lyons is an author who wrote a book about how to de-stress. I highly recommend listening to the podcast then buy her book.
Our Challenge
On the podcast, Rebekah tells her story about living in Manhattan and trying to meet her husband at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. He got there early to get a good spot and she went to meet him, her 4 children in tow. She couldn’t get through the wall of people and she was so overwhelmed with the effort in getting there she sat down on the curb and cried.
We all have our Thanksgiving Parade moment. That giving up. That Sitting down and crying moment.
She then mentions all the other smaller stories that lead to that bigger moment and how it all catches up with you.
This is true for me. I went through a lot to get pregnant, endured complications, then naturally birthed twins. While the actual twins themselves are not traumatic by any means, the steps it took to conceive them were. I’ve also never raised a human being before, let alone two at the same time, on my first go. Add nursing and it’s not the easiest of situations.
As parents we don’t question it. We accept the hardship and power through to bedtime.
It takes a toll.
The Rhythm
Rebekah talks about finding the rhythm in your life through resting, restoring, connecting, and creating.
To restore is to find your own routine. We’re caught up in keeping our children on their set schedule we over look ours ( to be fair, their schedule is a domino effect to our sanity). In our schedule we need not only food and sleep, but things that bring us joy and peace like going for morning and evening walks. Date nights need to be built in as well. These aren’t things you make time spontaneously, like waking up one day and booking a babysitter. You bake them into your everyday or periodically throughout the week or month.
After my podcast with my Aunt Trish, I identified some much needed rhythms in my own life like eating properly, especially in the mornings.
This has helped out tremendously! I have lost a pound or two and have more energy in the morning to get things done where I used to peak in productivity in the afternoon.
I have two other self care rhythms. A 15 minute meditation thanks to ZivaOnline, and washing and moisturizing my face with Arbonne as recommended by Kimberly Wilsey.
My morning has a great flow to it. Wake up, meditate, wash my face, make breakfast and head out the door (along with getting the kids ready obviously).
Find Your Happy Medium
I still have rhythms to find. One with my husband. Another with my children.
I first need to find my own. Ensure I’m doing things that bring me joy like taking walks in the morning and evening with my family, doing jigsaw puzzles around the dinning room table, date nights with my husband and our friends, and girls nights once a month.
We have scheduled a weekly date night. There was a girls night in October and already one on the books for November. We’ve been walking almost every night and we started doing more puzzles in the evenings and weekends.
Even in this joy there are still challenges I can’t solve by myself. In the podcast Rebekah talks about underlying anxiety many of us feel and while she gives immediate actions for our daily lives we can’t always face anxiety alone.
We don’t always know the underlying causes or how best to tackle it.
There are many resources available from healthcare professionals to parenting groups to organizations specializing in specific challenges.
Find what works for you, just know you don’t have to do it alone.
You do you, and keep finding your happy medium and rhythm of your life one day at a time.