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| Image credit: Photo by catdancing on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0 |
Last week, I asked you all to join the Just for Today Challenge with me, where we would all change one thing about our lives for just one day. I'll share what I did, and if you did something yourself, either share about it in the comments or (if you wrote a post about it) enter the URL for the post in Mister Linky below to add a link to your blog. (This is my first attempt to incorporate Mister Linky, so I'm hoping everything will go smoothly. Just in case, I'd encourage you to leave a comment too, at least this time. I'm going to try to make this an ongoing thing, so hopefully I'll work out the kinks as I go.)
As many of you know, I've instituted a day of rest and spirituality for myself every Wednesday, and each Wednesday I'm thinking of focusing on one change I'd like to make. This week the big challenge was cutting out sugar. Now some of you might think, "It's not hard to go just one day without sugary treats!" Well, good for you, apparently you're not addicted to them. For me, it was hard: really, really, crushingly hard to go the entire day without sugar (and because I only take my caffeine in soda form, caffeine as well).
Actually, that's not entirely true. I got up in the morning and said, "No, no. No chocolate PopTart for you today! We're having a bagel instead." And that wasn't so bad. Then I ate lunch and I wanted a Coke with it, but I settled for water. And I wanted some Halloween candy for dessert and my hand was reaching for the bowl, but I pulled it back and said, "I can go just one day without a mini Snickers!"
But then the kids came home from school, and I felt like I was drowning in "Mama, I want..." and "Mama, I need..." and "Mama, where is..." and "Mama, can I [insert insane and dangerous request here]..." and "Mama, Daddy said I could..." and "But he started it" and "No, she started it" and "No, he did!" I wanted one of those freaking Halloween candies so bad I was ready to tear my hair out. And I wanted to wash it down with a can of Coke. So I stopped taking things one day at a time and took them one minute at a time for the few hours until Mark got home from work. Once Mark was home, I had dinner, went off to my meditation group and came home to the kids asleep. And I thought about that pumpkin pie in the fridge, but I didn't need it.
So, I learned that I really use sugar and caffeine to handle the stress of juggling the kids' needs and demands, of setting limits and enforcing rules, of just the plain sensory overload of two kids focusing their attention on me. And I learned that one day without sugar was hard, but it also acted like a reset button: the next day, I didn't crave sugar as much and while I let myself indulge again, I ate (and drank) less of it than at any time in the last few months. I've also noticed that my sugar intake has gradually increased over the course of the week, creeping not quite back up, but closer, to where it had been before.
Still, it's comforting to know that my one day a week of change could be a way of hitting reset on a lot of things in my life, and I'm looking forward to testing the theory with some other behaviors. And I want to know how your one day worked for you! What did you add to your life or give up? What did it feel like and what did you learn? Post a link and/or leave a comment. And feel free to pick a day and a behavior yourself and join in next Tuesday too. If you participated this week, you can keep it up with the same thing this week or choose something new. It's up to you.
Mr. Linky:
Just for Today Challenge: My Challenge was to be more mindful. That is kind of general but I'm quite often a doer, a busy person who can use productivity as my drug of choice. So, for me, being mindful came up in a few ways.
I went to yoga. I didn't talk about going, think about going, plan on going. I went. I was in the class. Even in the class though I worked on being mindful and not forcing poses I haven't done in a while. I let myself be stiff because I was stiff. I let my mind wander during meditation because it was wondering. I was gentle with myself and didn't sign up for a life long membership but did notice, "That felt really good. Need to move body more."
I have not been AS QUICK to reply to every email, thought, concern or question. Can I mull something over for a day, an hour, a while? Apparently can. Some of the time. Did I regret even once not "Racing and Rushing" to answer? Nope.
I was hungry at 9pm last night. I thought about if I was a little hungry or very hungry and after thinking grabbed an apple. Usually I get a bag of pretzels and left the amount in the bag be exactly how hungry I was.
And, I made a choice in an interaction with my child to let something go. It wasn't easy for me. My feelings were a bit hurt but I had to wonder, "How much do I need to make a point and how much do I need to hear the bigger thing being expressed?" I went with the bigger thing being expressed knowing I can address in another way not before school how one might be more considerate. I decided to model being considerate rather than to lecture about it. In the end, I heard something that was precious and priceless. My child told me something important. "I like it when you say I love you a lot but I don't like it when you talk a lot about other stuff." Would I have heard that need and enjoyment of frequent "I love you's" if I had filled all the air.
All in all, a worthwhile exercise and rewarding. I also noticed when I wasn't mindful and when i was not, and lost my patience, it didn't feel so good. But I didn't beat myself up. I observed. I noticed. If I acted poorly, as I did at least once that was clear to me, I apologized. The mindfulness made me feel more awake.
Thanks for the prompt MPJ!
I filled out the blog link before posting on my website. Duh. So it was my mistake but I hope NOW the link may work. But if not, it's this user's error and not the system.
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I like the idea of this challenge. When I read about if last week I wondered what to do for myself. The first thought I had was that I needed to not dwell. Not dwell on worries, stressful things, whatever it is that I am stewing on - to let it go and free my mind.
In the days that followed came very sad news in my little world and I have thoroughly failed at not dwelling.
Maybe I need a different challenge. I don't see myself being able to let go of this sadness any time soon.
So proud of you for getting through with no sugar or caffeine. Really, bravo!
I was going to blog about this, but it didn't happen. Largely because my theory of "tying up loose ends" was still too much for one day. I did clear out some niggling to-do's, and it is helping, but I think I need another tack. Maybe next Monday I can think about how better to juggle the competing demands. Or maybe I can just reflect on all the reasons to keep my hand down and my mouth shut when something looks like it might need doing.