How many of you go through your day feeling as if everyone and everything is trying to get your attention? People can reach you via text, through your cell phone, through Twitter, Facebook and more. It is a constant source of interruption when you are trying to be focused and attentive to something. Personally, trying to be more mindful is something I am always reaching for in my own life. I am so busy between kids, activities, sports, work, managing the home, trying to squeeze in "me" time, that I sometimes don't enjoy the moments for what they are.
Ladies, it's time to fall back. That's right, Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 7th, 2010. Before you go to sleep on Saturday night, turn those clocks back 1 hour! Yes, you're losing daylight for many months. But for one day, and one day only, you have one entire bonus hour. That's right moms! So put the kids to bed and revel in 60 minutes of bliss. What will you do with it? Here are our top 5 suggestions:
It’s raining, there is a crispness and coolness in the air; the leaves
are starting to change and fall as the days grow shorter and shorter.
Its the autumn, my very favorite time of the year.
Let's use the fall energy as a time for letting go
and releasing old energies that we would like to leave here in 2010
while we prepare and gather what we would like and need to bring into
2011.
I have a client I will call Sarah. Sarah has been a mother for as long as she can remember, and in this time Sarah slowly lost touch with her own needs and desires. She spent so much time caring for others, that her own joy factor got pushed aside. When I asked her what her passions were, she looked at me with a complete blank stare. She honestly had no idea what her passions were. I of course told her that deep down she knew exactly what her passions were, they were just buried over the course of time.
This is by far my favorite time of year. You can feel the chill in the air, see the beauty of the leaves changing color and witness mother nature's magic. As the leaves fall from the comfort of the trees, new leaves will be reborn next spring. This is the perfect time to take a look at your own life; which areas need to be buried and reborn with a fresh perspective. Are there aspects of yourself that you would rather move away from? Are there parts of your life that you would like to create a clean slate? What part of your life would you dream of comparing to the falling of the leaves?
People are busier than ever between work, family, activities and volunteering to help others. Now add your blackberry, pager, internet, and other tech savvy gadgets. I once worked with a woman that was so busy with her life that she wasn't enjoying her life. She thought everything she had going on was so important, that keeping her cell phone attached to her hip every hour of the day was a necessity. She got caught up in the rat race of everything and needed some help taking a break and getting re-focused. Do any of you feel like your days just blend together with a lack of direction or purpose? Do you feel like you are in a hamster cage doing the same things over and over?
How do you typically embrace the world? Are you constantly waiting for the storm to arrive, or do you look forward to a day of uncertainty? Do you typically see the good and positives in most situations, or are you constantly looking over your shoulder? Our outlook on life can paint a canvas full of color and life or create a palette dreary and bland. Your attitude makes a dramatic difference on your response and experience to situations.
How many of you feel that you have so many different responsibilities in your life, that you cannot possibly make it all work. You may be focusing on work obligations while trying to keep your household up and running. All of this running around creates a feeling of hopelessness. I have seen it countless times with clients that try to do it all with enormous to-do lists, and in the end they feel like a failure. Sometimes I just need to remind them of the larger picture. When all is said and done, do you really think anyone is going to care that your home is spotless? Rather, what they will remember is how they felt in your presence, the memories you shared.
I was watching a movie the other evening, One True Thing, with Meryl Streep and Renee Zellwegger. Meryl's character was dying toward the end of the movie, and she looked at her daughter, played by Zellwegger, and told her to choose happiness in her life. She explained that it was much easier to choose happiness in life than to choose to be unhappy. For some reason this one statement really impacted me. It was so simple yet so profound.
Perhaps you always talk about doing it, but it never seems to happen. Why is it that you just can’t bring yourself to schedule that facial, or spend a Saturday afternoon reading magazines in a coffeehouse, or finally get that Moms’ Happy Hour to come together? Though it’s sometimes hard to take the plunge, here are five reasons why taking time for you - and your friends - is something that you owe to your family as well as yourself:
