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The 3 Life-Changing Practices I Still Do Today
Let me get straight to the point on this one.
These are the three practices I trained myself to do that changed my life:
Gratitude: morning practice- 3 things I’m grateful for (or more) before I get out of bed in the morning. If you’re known for hitting the snooze button this is an easy practice to fit into that (snooze) time between alarms that will help get you out of bed faster and much much happier.
Meditation daily: non-negotiable
Drinking in celebration NOT for reward or in relation to feeling stressed, emotional, overwhelmed, or worn out.
Click on the Instagram Post to listen or keep reading to understand how these simple tools can change your life from feeling overwhelming stress and self-judgement to happy, peaceful, and fulfilled.
Now, let's get a little personal.
If you know my story, then you know that around my 13th year of teaching high school I was experiencing burn-out (for the 2nd time in 6 years).
I was working 3 jobs and felt like there was never enough time or money left over for me.
Working 3 jobs didn’t start out as a means to make more money.
It started out because I just couldn’t say "no".
I loved that someone wanted Me to do this job. I loved feeling needed. It made me feel important to feel like I was the only one that could do it. So I did it…and I kept doing it despite my own need for time to rest, time to indulge, time for creativity, time for fun.
Instead, I pushed on, doing all the things and felt happy to have weekends and nights to relax and indulge.
Like every other adult woman I knew, I learned to indulge at night with wine, my shows, and social media scrolling. Facebook was king back then.
This was my me-time. My baby was asleep. There was no one calling my name, requesting my time, attention and energy. There was just me. Time and space to breathe.
Only…it was not healthy.
Just because it is likely the most common way to relax does not mean it is the best way.
It was wrecking my marriage. We never communicated anymore. He was just as tired as I was. And I woke up more exhausted than the day before from to low quality sleep. Each day, just living to get through the next until Friday comes. And then I could rest.
One more problem, my days were full and so was my mind….I could not turn it off.
The more wine I drank, I tried to drown the voice in my head and get the self-judgment to stop. But it wouldn't. It would only come back louder the next day.
This went on for years. It would have continued for years if it weren’t for the day that I realized what I was sacrificing because of it. This was a choice, not a way of life. And I could choose again.
You know there’s more to this story, one doesn’t just up and experience this kind of reckoning without a nasty low point. But I’ll save that story for another day. (If you want to know more about it click here to check out the Instagram Live on this same subject.)
What I want you to know now is that this experience changed the course of my life, forever.
I am who I am today because of it and for that I am eternally grateful.
My first choice was to give up drinking. At the time, I thought it would have to be forever. Alcoholism ran in my family and obviously I had the genes turned on for this one.
Over time, I realized the addiction I was recovering from was not alcoholism, but stress. I was addicted to the ups and downs of the adrenaline that comes from telling the stories of how this was hard, how I’d been wronged, how I couldn’t stand this or got excited about that.
I digress.
When I gave up drinking the stress and self-judgment didn’t stop. If anything it just got louder and I was forced to find healthier ways to cope with that stress.
That is when I found yoga, and from there migrated to meditation.
My whole world opened up once I found these practices.
I started to breathe again. I started to feel more self-compassion than self-loathing. I got excited about the little things. My creativity was easy and effortless. I was a more empathetic and compassionate person. Gratitude became my second nature. And in short, I felt So. Much. Better.
Taking better care of me made me a better version of me.
I’m not going to tell you that meditation and caring for yourself will make you the person it made me. But I will tell you that it will make you a better version of you. Whoever you are naturally.
This act of caring for yourself (including daily meditation) will take your natural strengths and amplify them in a way that is easy and effortless. That’s what we in the woo-woo world refer to as “aligned”.
If you adopt these three simple practices I can promise you, you will see your world change too.
This is the first step…
Gratitude
Meditation
Find productive ways of coping with stress (like meditation, deep breathing, journaling, and exercise)
Have you found more productive ways to cope with stress? Please share that with me in the comments. I'm always looking for new ideas for myself and for my clients.
Do you have a story like this one and looking for more constructive ways to improve your quality of life?
I have the resources you need to get moving with this first step.
Email me and let's talk.