Sacred Morning Time

  

 

Mornings are so sacred, just as my mom said they'd be, with sweet Baby Luna. She is starting to sleep more in the night and only wakes up a few times to breastfeed so I feel a pattern may finally be emerging. Then this morning I signed up for a coaching call at 9am, thinking she'd be breastfeeding or napping, which is what we usually do in the mornings. And she was! She really has been very calm in the mornings lately, waking up very hungry but after nursing for a bit, sometimes off and on for an hour or so, she takes a delicious nap. It can be another hour or so and then she may have some adorable awake time before napping again, usually in the swing up to this point while Mommy finally prepares and hopefully eats breakfast. 

But because of the call this morning, I have become really aware with the rich silence that can happen each morning. I turned the TV off for a change--it’s had kind of a mindless numbing effect on me this past few months at home. I know my smartphone is also a time and energy sucker but at least I can do some worthwhile things on it, like writing my thoughts and memories down, blogging, staying in touch with friends and family, and reading different articles about parenting and wellness, for example. TV can also be beneficial at times, especially with history programs or funny movies, but I think it affects me when I watch too much because it's not in line with my beliefs of not having Baby Luna watch TV for the first few years. Same goes for the phone actually, which may be why my anxiety is up a bit overall. 

I know that was the case when I finally got organic shampoo for myself last year after hearing about how certain products can affect our overall health from so many chemicals. Something seemingly so simple, but as a result of the switch to organic, I felt so much better about what I was using on my body. Same goes for the food I put in my body too. I have fallen out of alignment with my most precious values and beliefs and this causes angst over time. Sure, it's survival at first because we’re running on little sleep and everything is so new, but 8 weeks in, I'm starting to realize how not staying true to what I believe in--in terms of healthy living for my baby and myself--really can take a toll on my overall wellbeing. 

Since discovering the beautiful silence of the morning, I'm going to start by taking quiet time to reflect and meditate while Luna sleeps, like I'm doing right now. (Writing is a form of meditation for me sometimes.) Through that reflection time, l hope to feel more energized and make choices throughout the day, when it’s possible, around my time and food that fill me up, rather than leaving me depleted.

Have you ever fallen out of alignment with your values? How do you get back in line? 

A Month of Wellness

Over the past several months, I’ve been tracking some positive habits forming in my life and this last month has been packed with wellness-rich activities to help propel me into excellent health and well-being. I also joined a wellness challenge at my work and offered to be one of the team captains, knowing that my experiences from life coaching would come in handy as I motivate a team of wellness warriors. 

Since the challenge began almost 3 weeks ago, I’ve had 3 massages, an acupuncture treatment (which I’ve actually been enjoying monthly for almost 8 years now), time on the inversion table with my naturopath, a new dry brushing practice every morning to activate and awaken my lymphatic system, plenty of cloud gazing and cloud photography, days of guilt-free rest (or at least aspiring to be guilt-free), 3 epsom salt baths, 2 barefoot walks on the beach, discovering foam rolling for stretching, salsa dancing with my handsome husband, reducing my gluten, refined sugar, soy, and caffeine intake, eating more dark leafy greens, collaging, art walking, picking blackberries, meditating every morning (with the inspiration of the Oprah and Deepak 21-Day Meditation coinciding perfectly with the start of my workplace wellness challenge), 7 neighborhood walks with my hubby, and several gatherings with good friends. 

You see, wellness is so vast; it can encapsulate virtually anything that brings you joy, makes you smile, helps you breathe more deeply, and makes you WELL.

This Blog Is a Mirror Into My Soul

This blog is a mirror into my soul sometimes. It's a way for me to express my deepest thoughts and take some big risks and trust that all my supporters will still be here waiting for me and cheering me on as I practice vulnerability through this public forum. I wanted to look back at the past 10 months of blogging and reflect on all the great lessons learned through the art of writing and sharing with others. I think this blog is a reflection of my inner struggles and my inner joys, and I'm very grateful you're here reading these words.

I'm first going to look back on the different topics I've chosen to write about or I've felt drawn to reflect upon, sometimes because of external inspiration from a class or hearing an amazing speaker and other times from within, something that I've been chewing on and writing about it helps me work all the kinks out.  (Today I'll highlight last July through October.)

Last July I restarted my blog by typing up my notes from an amazing mindfulness mini-retreat that I attended a year ago. I wrote about the Miracles of Mindfulness. Then about a month later, I began my weekly wellness blog practice on the exact one-year anniversary of my major abdominal/vascular surgery with a post about climbing to the top of a mountain to celebrate this post-op-iversary. For week 2, I blogged from a park bench overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound at one of my favorite viewpoints and called it Tranquil Time Tuesday. In week 3, I was feeling a bit "meh" and wrote about watching frolicking squirrels as stress relief. :) I started to feel a real rhythm for blogging and hear my true writing voice come through by week 4 with Learning to Love Even the Darkness.

In my second month of regularly blogging each week, I participated in a 21-day meditation challenge with the great Deepak and Oprah and learned an invaluable tool of pausing, assessing, reframing, and choosing love. I remember really enjoying writing this post because it was so practical and it can help anyone. The next week I recycled a few blog posts I wrote many years earlier about my second home of Ecuador.  Ooh, I really remember liking the week after's post on No lions...no tigers because it was really empowering for me to write and I found myself rereading it at later dates to relearn the wonderful lessons I shared from one of my favorite creative authors, SARK.  For the last week in September, I reflected on a workshop I attended that helped open me up and maybe even more importantly showed me that I had built some walls around myself to protect myself.

My October blogs covered an array of topics from celebrating our talents, rewriting some history, starting a decluttering challenge for myself which proved challenging but did work well as a de-stressor, and looking inside my anti-stress backpack.

Next time I'll review the winter months and into this year. So much writing, so much growth!

Little Things Matter

I decided to combine my photography of today's amazing sunset with my love of affirmations and so I created a blollage (I made that word up to combine blog and collage!) for my blog post this week.  I also had fun making this blollage so my Fun-A-Day challenge #21 has been fulfilled as well.

I have really found in the past 3 weeks that doing little things everyday makes a BIG difference.  I have realized this in just adding simple things like meditating/praying every morning, creating something for Fun-A-Day everyday, usually in the evening, and writing in my gratitude journal every night before bed.

I start the day out with strength, am able to express myself creatively through Fun-A-Day, and end the day remembering what I'm grateful for.  It's the best way to get through any day--whether it be an easy one or a challenging one.  And after 21 days, I find myself craving these activities so I can say now that more than just a habit has been formed, a new way of living and thriving has been created.  Getting through your day struggling to come up for air is merely surviving, but paying tribute, creating and feeling gratitude are all things on the beautiful, golden or rainbow-colored road of thrival.  I most definitely prefer to thrive than just survive.

I feel so much more alive in my heart and soul when I'm creating and feeling grateful, rather than just going through the day "getting by."  Getting by doesn't fulfill me.  I know this now.  And if I let myself go too long just getting by, my mind and body start to rebel.  So it's just like flossing or eating your vegetables everyday, meditating and creating and feeling grateful are necessary steps to take for my overall health. Like doctor's orders, but in this case, I made the rules; I'm the doctor; I'm the master of my own future and so I'm choosing to take part in joyous activities whenever it's possible.  Some days it's only been a few minutes posting a quick photo I took to achieve my Fun-A-Day but other days I have enough time to go on a nature walk and really look at all that I've created and choose which one I would like to share with you.

So no matter how little time we have to work on the things that bring us joy, the most important thing is to keep doing them, every day, so that we crave them and they become as common to us as driving to work or eating lunch or brushing our teeth.  That is my hope.  To make joy a regular part of my day, every day.

Miracles of Mindfulness

Remembering what I learned at the recent Heart of Mindfulness retreat I attended at the beautiful Talaris Center in Seattle, presented by Erica Rayner-Horn, it's essential not to get caught up with preferences, of what I like or don’t like, what I want or don’t want, and instead accept what is right now in this moment and know and gain great relief from the fact that everything changes.  One great technique I also learned at the retreat is to take as many “mindfulness pauses” as I need throughout each day.  And to “perk up and lean in” rather than “tense and avoid.”  As I reflect on these wise teachings, I realize that I’m tensing and avoiding as I think about upcoming potential changes.  Instead I need to shift my perspective and become curious about the sensations happening in my mind, body and heart/spirit and perk up and lean into this feeling.  It’s counter-intuitive but I know that it’s important not to avoid uncomfortable things, but instead confront them and let them have their way with me so that I can let go and be free again.

Here are some specific examples of what I learned at this wonderful retreat:

• A review of what mindfulness is (the awareness that comes from paying attention in the present moment, in a non-judgmental way).
• Different methods to apply mindfulness to our daily lives, at work or at home: mindfulness pauses, daily meditation or deep breathing practice, body scan exercise, mindful walking and movement, mindful eating, slowing down to notice our feelings, sensations and surroundings.
• Suffering is equal to pain multiplied by resistance, and escalation plays a big role in suffering also. So much of suffering is because we’re not okay with what is, right now.
• Getting away from preferences or opposite “poles”--wanting or not wanting, liking or disliking and instead accepting what is right now in this moment.
• When faced with a difficult feeling or emotion, perk up and lean into it, rather than tense and avoid, which we tend to do naturally when afraid.
• Maintain a sense of openness and curiosity, especially when in physical or emotional pain, rather than tensing and anticipating something “bad” will happen.
• Release and let go of the constant need to judge things/people/events/memories/thoughts/emotions/feelings as good or bad; they just are.
• Accept what is, right now, knowing that change will always come.
• When triggered by stress, stop and take a mindfulness pause.
• Stay with the uncomfortable feeling and be aware.
• Bow to your experience and name it.  Label it and see how much easier it is to let it rest.
• Train yourself to notice your stress triggers faster and recognize how your mind, body and heart react.
• Note a particular thought or emotion and then release it or let it rest.  

Written June 20, 2013