Last night I went to bed with great intentions. Having had a week where I had got out of a routine I decided that I would set an alarm get up at a sensible time and I had a list of things that I wanted to achieve today. Well so much for my good intentions. I hardly slept all night. I am someone who has problems sleeping if I am stressed however I wasn’t aware that I was! After tossing and turning for most of the night I could not face getting out of bed when the alarm went off I was just too exhausted.
Nevertheless I was not going to allow all of my good intentions to fall by the wayside. I went out for an hour’s walk with the dogs which certainly got the blood pumping. When I came back I did one other thing that I had been planning to start again today. Previously I have mentioned that I started a pilates class last year. The last lock down meant that was put on hold and remains so. At the beginning of lock down I searched on Youtube for pilates videos that appeared to be similar to what I had been doing. I found two by someone called Gunnar Petterson. I started using them regularly and by Christmas I was doing one or other of the videos every day. Over Christmas itself I stopped and hadn’t restarted, until today. I did the shorter video today. I have to say that even that was painful however it is a start and I intend to continue doing these forms of exercise. Strangely in the past when people talk about endorphins I have always felt that no form of exercise provided them for me. However pilates seems to do the trick. As with most things getting into a good habit is important so I am going to endeavour to continue to do this.
So what do you do to try and get yourself back on track when things don’t go quite according to plan? Are you able to recognise the pluses and the minuses equally rather than simply focussing on only one of them? I struggle to do this. So how you engage in self-care when the day starts on a minus?
Tales from the Sheshed France 
I am insommniac , get up silly o clock to walk dogs for at least an hour before I go to work . Just can’t get my head into gear to get the weight off and that is really getting me down .
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That’s not sounding good Fiona. I’m certain that the menopause is more culpable than any of us realise. Lack of sleep and issues with weight are closely linked. I hope that you can find a way to get better sleep and that other things follow.
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Every day is a new start – but not every day starts well
The trick is to know the difference between (a) don’t want to today (b) can’t face it today but really need to do this (c) really need to give myself a guilt free day off today and do something I want to (eg: hide under the covers / go to the beach / sit and watch a movie to help me cry all the sorrow away)
The trick is to know the difference and make THE most of the day as YOU need it to be
PS. I know you’re a hard-working, over achiever – learn to meditate on patient acceptance of what it is you are feeling – then breathe and chill
With love 🙏🏽🧘🏽♀️🙏🏽
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Thank you. I can manage guilt free days off. And actually I’ve been doing meditation. It’s trying to fit everything in! And yes making the most of the day as I need it to be is a trick I’m learning. It all takes time, patience and practice.
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Don’t overthink it all. That’s what I do. It’s really easy to spend a huge amount of time trying to work out why, when’s and why nots about things, instead, I spend a little time thinking about those things and then occupy myself and engross conscious thought onto whatever it is I want to do. After a while your u conscious will be quietly working away on the other issues without your conscious analytical thoughts interrupting and holding you back. By using this technique you are productive in your conscious persuits and your unconscious is sorting out the things that your conscious is overthinking and sabotaging. I always read before I go to sleep. It is impossible to think about something else and read at the same time. This works in the same way and separates conscious from unconscious. You might sleep better. Just be happy being. Whatever that means to you. Xxx
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Thank you and thank you for taking the time to reply. I always read too. It usually helps me to sleep but there are times when my subconscious sabotages everything. Mindfulness helps in allowing us to be creative, positive and engaged in our lives. However it seems that it is a slow and conscious process. I hope that our conversations support us all in moving forward.
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