What Do You Want to Avoid?

This morning when I woke up, I recognized a familiar pattern, of wanting to roll back over and go to sleep. There is an ongoing list in my head of all the things I need to attend to. It felt like the list was growing and getting larger and more difficult. I noticed that familiar time-crunch. The time-crunch, when it happens, can feel painful. It’s as if there is not enough time to attend to everything I want to attend to.

As I’m noticing that, and taking the time to breath into that, and notice what happens in my body when I tell myself that. When I say that there’s not enough time to get everything done. There is a tightening that happens, a constriction.

Then, I thought about my herd, I haven’t even gotten to spend as much time with them as I would like to. So, I’m out here to spend time with my herd now. I love the way they support me and stand beside me; they have done that for years. Taking time to be, right where I am, with acceptance and grace.

Then doing a little time-travel back to this morning when I just wanted to stay with the softness of my pillow and my blanket. There’s a memory of being a child and I loved waking up on a Saturday morning because it meant that I didn’t have to get up. That was the one day that I could stay in bed. It was really nice to have that freedom, that ease that comes with giving oneself permission to take some time off. It’s important for our self-care to allow ourselves to really relax.

When we take the time we need, to find our way to have acceptance in the moment, there is a shift, my shoulders drop, I can breathe deeper. Grace is an amazing energy, undeserved merit. It’s not so much about deserving it as it is allowing it.

When I allow myself to receive the support I need, in whatever form it needs to be, then I expand my window of welcome to where I am able to be present with that list of things that I’d really like to attend to. And, I can allow myself to attend to things one thing at a time, rather than bunching them all up in my imagination and pressuring myself to do several things at the same time. So, allowing myself to slow down and notice the first niggles of when that overwhelm starts to creep in. Where my body wants to contract, and I just want to ignore life. I much prefer when I can welcome life, however it is in the moment.

So how about you? Are there places in your life where you want to avoid something? Are you putting a lot of pressure on yourself to do several things at the same time? Do you have a list that is growing and growing, and you don’t ever seem to get to take a breath? How about you experiment today with taking a breath anyway. Take time to relax and to be right where you are. Be relational with YOU, because you really do matter, and take time to smile, that will support your body as well.