Day 11 Daily hurdles, daily successes

I am pretty impressed with how this is working. I am handling painful episodes more sensibly these days. I have them, but don't feel as concerned or terrified as before. I keep focusing on the 12 reminders, which I have printed out next to my desk.

I have exercised for 7 days straight and have gone up to 30 minutes on the elliptical and 20 min of stretching, because I want to. I am riding bike daily to town and loving it.

I am cutting short an extended visit I am on to a friend out of town, because the household is too stressful with very young children around 24/7. I felt a lot of guilt informing my host of this, but I am past that stage of my life and am not going to apologize for the way I feel. I have not been around young kids 24/7 for years, and though I love kids, this is not the time for me to be doing this sort of thing. This has created tension and disappointment with my host, but I have come too far health-wise to place myself in a position that is creating more stress than I already have. Normally, I would have been consumed by guilt to make this change, but I felt it necessary to do so and am at ease with the decision. A whole new approach.

I meditate some days, if I feel a lot of tension. Don't meditate others. Don't feel guilty when I don't meditate. The MUST is also stressful and the cardio is often my "meditative" 30 min anyway.

I am grateful for all the love and support I have in my life. I am grateful for this forum for providing advice and approaches not found elsewhere in this comprehensive format. You guys are doing a very good deed.

 

I am very proud of you for coming so far in this amount of time. You know how to balance and that is so important.
I loved it when you said "The MUST is also stressful. You understand, thanks for the up-date. AWESOME.

 

Thanks Eric. Its up and down, but I am sticking with it.

 

We have our hard times then we have our greatest achievements. The fall behind times and the just blah days then we have this power that builds your charm.
Challenge the day each time and when you don't - The Musts - is of no need to a mind in
flow.
Your contentment and belief are always the measuring sticks but even then conditioned minds has to be reprogrammed and this lesson you know great. You will have a good journey.

 

Hi Yvette, I loved how you took care of yourself. I am still learning that its okay to call it out when I've hit a stress threshold. I think I was trying to still "manage" the stress but it was really falling into a "must" category which for me is path to pain! Thanks for the reminder!

 

I agree the MUST category is the path to pain. Thanks for that reminder, again.