Simplify Your Life Right Now!

Honey, you need to SIMPLIFY.  I already know what you’re doing day in and day out!!! It’s a thousand different things from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you close your eyes at night (and even then sometimes it takes another hour or two to turn off the To Do List in your head)!

I am a new mom, a healer, a business owner, a friend, there is literally never a time when I can’t think of something else to do with my time these days!  But, a few months ago, as my new-mom learning curve started to level-off, I was holding my baby girl in bed one morning and was filled to overflowing with gratitude for the sweetness in my life and deep mama love for this baby girl.  I was supposed to get up that morning and start check, check, checking boxes off of my personal To Do List including: cleaning the house, shopping for a birthday gift, planting some stuff in the garden, writing a thank-you card….etc. etc.  But while I was laying there in bed, my sweet baby smiling at me and rolling around the bed, I had a sudden realization that all of those little things on my to-do list were so much less important than savoring this moment with my baby, giving her my full attention, resting my body, and feeling the peace and quiet of my home keeping us both safe, warm, and comfortable.

I realized at that moment that there are only 3 really important things in my life right now, and that’s family, my work, and my spiritual practice.  Every other category that came after that either wasn’t that important to me, or was somehow a part of the BIG 3.  Whoa, only 3 THINGS??

The other major realization I had at that moment was that every time I was doing one of those 3 things, I would be feeling bad and guilty that I was somehow neglecting the other two! It was such a CRAZY no-win situation I’d put myself in. I’d be home with my baby in the morning, thinking about the email I hadn’t answered from a patient the night before, and feeling like I should be meditating to deal with the feelings that were coming up…it was a negative cycle of feeling like I was never doing enough of anything!

Once I saw this pattern in myself and figured out my 3 real priorities, I could finally feel FOCUSED and that I had a CLEAR INTENTION moving forward each day.

Fast forward to a few months later, and I can’t believe how much these insights have helped me to FEEL BETTER IN MY BODY.  Now when I’m stressed out about getting my paperwork done or going to the gym 5 days a week or writing the thank-you card, I literally just come back to my BIG 3 priorities and realize that I can let go of the stress of everything else.

It’s been so crazy helpful for me to keep my stress under control, which I know deeply affects how my body feels, how I sleep, how I eat, my mood, my interactions with others, EVERYTHING.

My mind and body feel HAPPIER and HEALTHIER knowing that almost all of my time these days is spent on those 3 things.  So, instead of holding my daughter but actually thinking about the email I haven’t answered from the night before, I have set up my day so that I get full-on baby time each morning, I have time for work in the middle of the day and I get to end my days with something related to Spirit, even if that’s just a quick thank you prayer for the day or a few minutes to sing, chant, or meditate.

I know it sounds crazy, but SIMPLIFYING your life with a few BIG PRIORITIES will help keep you grounded throughout the day as you navigate the thousand tasks + invitations to do more + daily grind work.

Start by writing down what you think your values/goals/priorities are and add-in the things that seem to keep popping up for you about what you “should” be doing when you’re engaged in something else.  Once you have your list, take a moment not to think, but to FEEL into each of the items on your list.  Just connect to your body by taking a few deep breaths, and you’ll definitely get a GUT SENSE of which things are really, truly important to you and which things are not on your BIG LIST.

Once you have your 3 priorities (okay it can be 1 or 2 or 4 …but 3 is such a nice, round number!) just go through your normal day and recognize how much time you are spending doing those things, and how much time you are spending doing other things.  As you stay conscious and revisit these new BIG LIST items, you will naturally start to spend more time and attention on those things and place less emphasis on the other million little things that are crowding out your true passions in life.  Seriously, getting out a thank-you card on time is not as important as taking yourself and your family out for a walk, or spending a few moments connecting to yourself, or giving your honey a big hug and kiss.

I really do feel like that moment of realization I had with my daughter at home in bed was divine inspiration to help me (and ultimately help YOU) get away from the rat-race of being overwhelmed by life.  My mission is to truly help you find peace and health as a whole person, and I hope this idea/suggestion will help you in your quest for finding BALANCE in body mind and spirit!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with comments questions…give this method a try and tell me what happens, I want to know what happens!

Happy Healing!

Love,

Dr. L