I’m experimenting with something new this year – upping my levels of relaxation, joy and self-care at the end of the year.
Normally from October onwards, it’s always forward momentum – I’m usually trying to finish a project, release a book, or pack a ridiculous amount of work into a short space of time.
As a consequence, I’m usually ill over Christmas. Last year, because I had things to do over Christmas and kept telling myself I didn’t have time to be ill, I managed to postpone the illness until the 1st of January – at which point I got flu, and I’ve felt the effects of that illness ever since.
So this year I’m doing things differently. I’ve deliberately taken time off in November to replenish and refuel ready for the silly season. I’ve set up daily practices that encourage joy and self-care (Dance in November and self-care in December).
And I have no intention of finishing book 3 by the end of the year. This time, it’ll be ready when it’s ready. No arbitrary, self-imposed, made-up deadlines.
I’m certain that I will end up putting pressure on myself somewhere before the end of the year, but hopefully I’ll notice in time to stop, ground and reconnect with sanity and common sense.
In years gone by, the busyness has taken over and I’ve driven myself into meltdown…looking back, simply because I was too busy to stop, ground and reconnect!
The irony being that those things do not need to take up a lot of your time, and if you do them, not only will you be healthier in mind and body, you will mostly likely find that things get done with greater ease and grace.
The stressed headless chicken approach is nowhere near as efficient as the calm, grounded, thoughtful, peaceful approach. And at this time of year, I think we need to be reminded of that!
So if you find yourself stressing, busying and running frantically on the hamster wheel just to try not to fly off…
Stop.
Take a pause. Breathe. If you can take time off, do. If not, take 10 minutes every day to just pause in the middle of the doing and make sure you’re not making yourself ill by trying to do the impossible. Stopping allows the brain to come out of “ohmygoshIvegotsomuchtodo” mode and into a more analytical, realistic and common sense place.
Where you may just realise (as I did one year not too long ago) that the 400 item long to do list contains only 5 that actually have to be done. The rest can wait. If you never stop, you never have time to realise and reorganise your priorities. So stop.
Ground.
I mean this in 2 ways – one, literally get your feet back on the ground. If you can (and it’s not too cold where you are) put your feet in the grass. If that’s not possible or practical (or it is too cold), simply spend a few minutes in a green space, hug a tree, do some grounding yoga or imagine walking barefoot in the grass.
Busyness makes us totally ungrounded – stress is an ungrounded state. If you are solid in your connection to the earth, you will be calmer and better able to see your priorities.
The second way I talk about groundedness is grounding into your body – especially into the heart. Again, busyness and stress are ‘heady’ – when clients are stressed and overly busy, they are usually totally in their head, with an endless loop of thoughts and concerns.
So get outta your head and into your body…and your heart. To get into your body, do yoga, dance, give yourself a massage, pay attention to how your body feels. To get into your heart, do things you love, be with people you love, and take your attention into your heart to hear its messages.
If you don’t have it already, the Body Mind Heart and Soul Guidance Audios will help you to connect to your body and heart (as well as mind and soul).
Connect
Have you ever been crazy busy, to the extent you’ve made yourself physically or mentally ill? Afterwards, did you realise how insane that busyness was, and how your common sense seemed to have gone out of the window?
You need to reconnect with your sanity and common sense. A good way I’ve found to do that is to get some distance – take time off and literally get away from the situation. Distance seems to bring situations into clearer focus.
But that’s not always possible, so here’s something you can do daily to connect with that wisdom: connect with your Divine Support. Whether that is God, Goddesses, Angels, Ancestors, Guides, Fairies, your Higher Self, your Soul, your Intuition.
Connect. Meditate if that works for you. Ask for help. Ask for guidance. And be open to that guidance and help coming back to you. As I said to a friend recently “They’re always answering, are you listening?”.
If you (and I) take the time to stop, ground and reconnect regularly, we might just get through to the end of the year with our sanity (and maybe even our health) intact.
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