Adventures of a New You Podcast Episode 50: Leaning In
On the most recent episode of the Adventures of a New You podcast I am chatting about leaning in!
I shared a post on instagram about taking a break. THe other day by 2pm I was done. I was done with work. I was done with parenting. I was done with myself.
That need for reassurance is there. The need for validation. It is incredible to see it even in myself that I knew that I needed a break and yet I still sought that validation. Thankfully I have a group of people surrounding me that recognize that and encourage me to tune in and listen to myself.
So we got in the car. We had nowhere that we had to go and frankly few places that you can even go. But I needed that break. I needed that sense of normalcy.
I am a doer. I am a mover and a shaker. I’m not someone who stays home… like literally ever. So at some points this being home is frustrating. Notice I didn’t say hard. It’s not hard to stay home. It’s frustrating.
Lots of things are frustrating right now. Some things are challenging. Working during this time is a big challenge. There is a constant pull from home, there is a constant pull at work and everyone needs us at the same time and if you are like me you feel like you can’t show up as the best version of yourself in any one of these places because we are being asked to show up in all of these places at one time.
There are so many things going on that it is completely over stimulating.
My son asks me all day long to slow down and only ask him to do one thing at a time. He has even offered me strategies that he has learned. Model magic or theraputty you can get it at target.
When my son was younger his occupational therapist talked to me about a program fro self regulation. Basically you compare your body to an engine… is you engine racing, is your engine to slow or is your engine just right. At the time I thought there is no way this is going to work. How is he going to be able to tell me how his engine feels. I went along with it though.
It is so clear now that the reason that I didn’t buy into the idea that my five year old could do this was because at 30 something I hadn’t even figured this out.
We tune in and listen to what our kids need, what our clients need, what our friends need. What other people need. But why is it that we don’t tune in to what we need.
Then we go and go and go until we lose it.
Self regulating takes time, it takes practice, it takes being insightful and mindful. Sometimes it takes dealing with shit that we don’t want to deal with.
But if you are a bottler then you know that you can only fit so much into the bottle until one day it explodes all over everything and if this has ever happened to you then you know that it’s not pretty and it will likely happen at a very inopportune time.
We need to take time to slow down and listen to ourselves. If you are a journaler then get journaling.
There are so many big feelings and big emotions right now.
Many people are not able to work, others are working in risky situations. THose that are trying to work are trying to navigate working without childcare.
Some families are split up for their own health and safety. Some family members are not healthy and need extra protection. Some people that we care about are even getting the virus.
This is all incredibly overwhelming. Our number one job is to keep ourselves safe and to figure out the best way to do that but we also need to keep ourselves sane. We need to dive in and feel all the feelings and we need to figure out what we need right here right now. It’s incredibly hard not to have control over our situations and our lives.
It’s hard not to have stability or structure. We need to find ways to make that for ourselves. One day at a time. We need to figure out what it is that we are craving right now and then we need to actually give ourselves permission to have that. Do you need rest? Do you need to get outside? Do you need to schedule a set time to work on a project? Do you need to hide in the car for a few minutes? Do you need someone else to just make dinner?
So take a minute right here and just listen. Let your brain just go…. Scribble down your thoughts, or email them to yourself, you can even use the voice memos on your phone. Take a minute and let all of that out and then you can see what it is that you really need.
If you want to bounce this off on someone, reach out to me! I am happy to jump in and do this with you!
I’m telling you letting your brain go on this rant will give you a clear picture of what your body needs from you today.
So dump away and then lean in to what your body is asking for.
That’s all for today! As always thank you so much for listening!
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