The Sundays

Hello Lovely Readers!

Do you ever get The Sundays? The Sundays are when you find yourself in a really tough place, typically on Sunday evening. There is anxiety over the week to come, guilt over all that was not accomplished with your two free weekend days (when you have The Sundays those days are for working, not relaxing), and general overwhelm at the week ahead. Anyways... The Sundays are not pleasant! I've talked with people about this and discovered that I am not the only one who has suffered from The Sundays.

I was able to cure myself last October when I started working part-time at my steady paycheck job (as opposed to my entrepreneurial endeavors). I simply decided that I would no longer work on Mondays! Brilliant, right? Well, it really did work! Honest! So I have not suffered from The Sundays in quite some time, almost a year. Imagine my surprise and dismay when I found myself fully engulfed in The Sundays on (gasp) a Saturday!!!

It's true. Yesterday started off just fine. I got up at 8am to get ready and teach my 9:30am Vinyasa Class at The NACC. After class I came home and had some breakfast, checked emails, did the usual. I went to the grocery store for my dear husband since he was tackling another project at Living Wellness of Niagara. After shopping I decided to head over to the center to do some light cleaning and that is when it started to hit me... I felt like a ton of bricks had landed on my chest. I was suddenly exhausted. And anxious. And I had nothing to comfort me except the awful, negative thoughts running through my mind. Yuck!

This is the place where typically some time with my journal or my yoga mat could pull me out of the funk, but yesterday it just wasn't happening. Instead I went to bed and watched hours of HGTV. This is hard for me to admit. I struggled over whether or not to even write this post. Sometimes I feel like I should keep my not-so-lovely moments to myself. But I also know it helps when we read/hear/see like-minded ladies stories so I figured I would share.

The good news is today I am feeling much better! I slept in, baked pumpkin bread, and had a nice long yoga practice this afternoon. I spent the rest of the day with my favorite 11 year-old, my Megan, visiting with family, enjoying Thai food, and browsing at Barnes and Noble. I hope that you all are doing well and enjoying your Sunday :-)

Me vs. The Vacuum aka I'm overwhelmed

I can't believe how fast the day is going by. How fast the week is going by. How fast life is going by.

Do you ever feel like you're just along for the ride? I hate that feeling! Hate, hate, hate it! For me, it's like feeling really ungrounded and out of control. Like I'm floating through my day, but not in a good I'm-on-cloud-nine kind of way. More like a I'm-totally-overwhelmed-and-just-shutting-down-so-I-can-make-it-through-this-day kind of way. Ugh...

I understand that sometimes it is necessary to "just get through the day," but lately I'm feeling like I'm noticing this feeling way too much. So it is time for some serious action! I'm talking scheduling an entire day off of work, including at-home business work. Funny, just typing that makes me feel anxious - like OMG, I can't! My world might fall to pieces!

Okay, swimming through the nervousness and moving on to the next antidote...choosing 3-5 things that really need to be done for the day and not worrying about the rest of the to-do list. My typical to-do list has a section for my part-time job as a psychologist, running my current yoga studio, creating my future wellness center business, the graduate class I'm teaching, stuff to be done at home, studying for my licensure exam, and my self-care. So I can get a little overwhelmed looking at all of that. I'm going to try to pick a few things to focus on per day and go from there.

Which brings me to my next idea... Delegate! Take a look at your list and decide what you can ask someone else to do. For example, on my list I have "fix the vacuum." Our vacuum is vacuuming up just fine, but it is also simultaneously shooting out dust as it picks up things. Frustrating, right? My husband already gave it his best shot and I have not had 5 minutes to devote to the vacuum. Now I'm living with more cat hair than usual and it is really weighing on mind, silly as it may sound. So I'm considering asking for help in fixing the vacuum, taking it to a vacuum repair shop (they do exist, right?), or just buying a new one and being done with it. Okay, my vacuum rant ends here.

Next, get back to basics. Drink a lot of water, get enough sleep, eat your fruit and vegetables. It really does make a difference. Too bad that when I am stressed I do exactly the opposite. I stay up too late doing work, my diet consists of bread/cookies/any other carbohydrate, I skip my date with the treadmill in order to devote more time to my laptop. It is easy to do; you (and I) think you will just plow through it, leaving your self-care behind and all will be well in a short time and then you will take care of yourself. However, life seems to involve some degree of stress most of the time and if you wait to relax or take care of yourself until the "right" time, it just might never come. Plus, the stressful and overwhelming times are when you really need some extra TLC!

Finally, surrender. You've done the best you can. It's time to set your worries out into the universe. Breathe. Believe. Everything will be okay. Even if your vacuum continues to shoot out dust at you.