You know that feeling when you wake up and you know your day is jammed packed with meetings, appointments, places to be and a "to do" list about a mile long? You feel slightly overwhelmed, but you think you've planned everything out so it can all be handled and your "A" game is strong. Well, I had a day this week that started out with this belief and by the end of the day, I realized I fell short. Like, really short. From start to finish, I went at warp speed for about 14 hours and had time to only eat a banana and a latte. I"m not exaggerating. I seriously had no time to even eat. Not great. One appointment ran long and I spent the rest of the day trying to catch up. Now some of these "to dos" were work related, some personal, some for my health, some for my kids and all ended up with me feeling completely defeated and icky at the end of the day. Icky because I was worried, frazzled, probably a little grumpy and I felt like I had let others down. Some of it is just that I hate being late. Like HATE IT. I value other people's time, as well as my own and I like to believe that if I said I was going to be somewhere at a certain time, you can count on me to hold up my end of the bargain. Not a bad trait, but when I do run late, which happens to everyone, I stress! I make myself crazy trying to get back on track. This means speeding while driving, maybe a little road rage, being short in my conversations with people, not fully present and just hurried. I hate this. I also felt like a crappy mother, friend and daughter because the people who needed me didn't get the best me. They got whatever was left. I went to bed feeling like I'd failed the very people that had been there supporting ME for the past year. I know this sounds kind of dramatic, but I'm sure you've all been there. So I began to think about what to do when this happens. It's going to happen again, because it's life! But how can I learn to relax and realize that everything falls into place? It's one thing to realize it's out of your control, but it's another to REALLY embrace that. Number one, I really need to cut myself some slack and just deal. If I've learned anything this past year with my health situation, it's that we need to breathe. We need to slow down. These appointments that have to be kept and things that have to be done will be accomplished. It may not happen exactly as you thought it out, but life doesn't always go that way either. Sometimes it's the moments that we don't choose and don't plan on that help mold us into becoming better people IF we are willing to reflect on the situation and work at learning from it. I know that I'm a work in progress and I do know what truly matters in life. I will continue to work on taking the bumps in my day and my life with stride and focus on how I react to stressful situations. At the end of the day, I want to feel good about how I handle the big and little things and most importantly, be present and grateful for each day, as well as, the people who cross my path at each moment.
At Yoga this week, the theme was a clean slate...No matter what happens in our lives, we are capable of wiping the slate clean and starting over whenever we choose. How you decide to move forward with that clean slate is up to you. Whenever I'm falling short, I hope to use that opportunity to wipe my slate clean. I will remember that tomorrow is a new day and the very fact that I'm here to start over and make the best out of even the most challenging of days in a blessing that I am eternally grateful for. You are never falling short if you use your experience to learn and grow. After all, what fun would it be if everything worked out exactly as you planned it? We'd miss out on some of the very best experiences in life. -M