New Year, New View

Good-bye 2009 – I am shedding you like a rattlesnake sheds his skin. It’s time to shed the ill fitting skin, and make room for new growth. 2010 is the year for new skin, new opportunities and change. I am thankful for the lessons I got to learn in 2009 but am ready for some easier homework in 2010. I am still not feeling great health wise; in fact, I am still battling the fatigue, exhaustion, brain fog, and general low energy and low enthusiasm. My big test was a 2 week holiday over Christmas and New Years. Connor and I took a road trip, first stopping at Kay and Richard’s for a relaxing couple of days. Then on to mom’s in Tucson where mom took care of me, I had no pressure, no obligations and time to spend doing whatever I wanted. Then on to dad and Julia’s for a visit before heading home. The test was if I didn’t get my groove back in this low stress, no demand environment, then the health issues aren’t work related, or stress related. The results: I felt terrible. No energy. No enthusiasm. Foggy brain. Wiped out.

I made some changes while on holiday that felt right and helped center me though. The first change was I committed to giving myself about an hour before bed to do yoga, meditation, breathing exercises and time to wind down and bring peace and balance to my mind and body. I downloaded some yoga and meditation podcasts (the iphone is the greatest toy in history!) and before my normal drop into bed, read 10 minutes and fall asleep routine, I isolated myself in my room and did my yoga and meditation. While I’d like to say I committed to and stuck to one hour, some nights it was 10 minutes, some nights it was 45 minutes. No matter how long though, it did bring a sense of the day ending, a sense of internal reflection and relaxation.

My dear friend Kay (you want stories about me? Ask Kay – she’s known me since we were in 7th grade) gave me a set of beautiful journals and a pen which inspired me to make the 2nd change. Each night when I finished yoga, I pulled out the journal and wrote 3 things that happened during the day that I was thankful for. This focused my thoughts on the gifts in my life and steered me away from my tendency to dwell on all that is wrong.