Self Care Vs. Blowing Your Lid

Confession: I had a completely different blog planned for this week – one that was all chipper and celebratory. And while I am feeling chipper and celebratory with the launch of our juiciest issue of Best Self Magazine to date, featuring the lovely Kris Carr, there is an underbelly that I feel is necessary to reveal.Sometimes it simply feels like childbirth getting an issue to the newsstands. Can you relate? Feel free to fill in your own deadline or commitment. But as anyone who has given birth can tell you, once you hold that precious end result in your hands, selective memory kicks in and the last vestiges of pain slowly dissipate on the horizon. That path to glory is a bumpy, often messy road along the journey from there to here.As a matter of fact, mine got messy just days before our release date. Like a pressure cooker steaming, one never really knows what slight move will blow off the lid. Just ask my family. In this house, it can be triggered by the seemingly most mundane thing…but once it’s lifted, all bets are off. Suddenly, a hidden monster is unleashed as I allow all of my pent-up frustrations to see the light of day in one fell swoop. Watch out! My family, typically a bit blind-sided, stands staring blank-faced at me. I’m sure they’re thinking, Oh no, you-know-what is about to hit the fan. Run for cover!It all boils down to self-care, limitations, expectations and a case of the “over-commitments.” Sorry to pull the plug on the pity party, but this one is on you. You can’t even blame this on Mercury in Retrograde. Come on, admit it – you knew you were stepping on the path. We can feel it mounting. And let’s face it, it doesn’t feel great knowing it’s your own doing. You ignored your boundaries and didn’t heed the internal call. It’ll catch up with you. Worse yet, you just created more work for yourself, because now you are going to have to circle back and clean up your mess. Why create the additional work?I ran around at turbo speeds attending to everyone’s needs but my own – thinking I could handle it all. You know what happened? My throat got scratchy, a nagging headache emerged, my body started to ache – a reminder that I couldn’t keep going at this pace. That got my attention. I like to be in control and suddenly I was in the backseat.Update: After a weekend of over-scheduling, over-committing – I was over everything. Come Monday morning - I felt like a complete and utter rebel. I didn’t run around tidying up the house while getting the resident teenager out the door for school, I didn’t answer every work email or post every social media outreach I had intended to, I didn’t go for a jog or throw in a load of laundry. Instead, I decided to climb back into my unmade bed and languish there, listening to the rain gently falling outside.Am I truly that wound up – that it takes a newsflash from my body to simply delight in a different pace? Apparently so. When there is a will to shift there is a way to shift. We aren’t meant to run through our lives in over-scheduled mode. Life is joyous. Don’t wait until you are sick in bed to realize it. Can you do one thing for yourself today that will keep you from blowing your lid? Note to Self-Care Self:IDENTIFY THE PRESSURE COOKER PATH – Try to figure out the triggers here. While the path is not completely avoidable, it is best when less traveled. Try to stop that train before it veers off track (you already know where it’s headed!)HAVE A PLAN – Know what you need in these moments. For me it is for everyone to simply refrain from making requests of me; as a matter of fact – just pretend I’m not here. Momma needs a time-out.SELF-CARE BABY – Downtime, me-time, restorative soul time – you have no choice but to put some systems in place for yourself. Fit it in no matter what, even if it means letting something else go. This is where the fun begins!GRAB A MOP – Sorry, as mentioned above – I hate to point out the obvious - but you have to clean up after yourself. Acknowledge your actions, move through it, it’ll shift the energy and you can get on with your joy.