Monday, April 8, 2013

The Plan


     Ok, so now what? What's the plan?

     Put simply, B+ !

     I have committed to taking on the very daunting challenge of altering my mindset so that I am 
     better equipped to kick D&A's ass! As I mentioned in my last post, I am already feeling a huge 
     difference - in my perspective, in my attitude, even in my energy levels. 

     This is the basic outline of THE PLAN:

1.   Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. I have a tendency of seeing the worst in every situation. And I definitely suffer from PMS - Poor Me Syndrome. So what I've been doing is that any time I have a negative thought, I try to list positive attributes about the situation instead, in order to reverse my mindset.

2.   Be mindful. Enjoy every moment to its fullest possible extent. I even relatively enjoyed the dental procedure I had done today because I focused on the goofy conversations the hygienist and I were having rather than on the ouch factor.

3.   Breathe deeply, often. This goes hand-in-hand with #1. When I see the negativity storm clouds rolling in, I take a deep breath and put a positive spin on the situation. Deep breathing gives me a few seconds to relax and stretch, clear my mind, and reverse my mindset. It also releases endorphins and minimizes stress, which helps with #1 and #2.

Just by doing these 3 things for the past 5 days, I already feel like a different person. Which is 
why what happened yesterday nearly derailed my positivity train. Yesterday morning when I 
woke up, I was energetic and ready to enjoy the day. I reveled in some me time with my coffee 
and a book, then had a delicious and healthy breakfast with my husband.

Late in the morning/early afternoon, I started feeling uneasy and slightly nauseous. And all I 
wanted to do was sleep. This is a common symptom of my anxiety, so I was discouraged, thinking 
that I was slipping into an anxiety-ridden day of being a non-functional couch blob, too 
overwhelmed by life to do anything. It's sometimes difficult to differentiate between anxiety and 
being physically ill, since my anxiety often manifests itself in physical symptoms. Was I coming 
down with something? Or maybe I didn't sleep well the night before and was physically tired? Or 
was I justifying allowing myself to be overcome by my anxiety? Tough call.

I consciously chose to take a nap. This decision could have had one of two outcomes - either I 
would sleep for an hour and wake up refreshed, ready to take on the world ... or transform into 
the aforementioned sniveling couch blob. And guess what? I woke up after about an hour, did 
four loads of laundry and pre-cooked tonight's dinner. No blob here! 

I guess THE PLAN is working. And I couldn't be more invigorated and excited to continue!

2 comments:

  1. Sweetie Pie,

    You have made a great start on your new venture. Keep being the Little Train that Could, cause I know you can, I know you can, I know you can. Something else you might want to think about when presented with a difficult challenge: you have overcome a number of difficult challenges in your adult life.

    You graduated KSC summa cum laude (sp?) after challenging yourself to beat my gpa. You successfully completed four months in a foreign country.

    Have I ever told you how proud I was of you? I listened to you giving cabbies instructions about where we wanted to go; I witnessed you haggling with the vendors in the marketplace--my daughter who not too long before wouldn't even go up to a window and order her own ice cream (in English)! I saw how enamored your host family was with you. All this, en Espanol! I am so happy that I took that trip to Ecuador, just for having seen this.

    You also successfully planned and administrated your own wedding, almost single-handedly! It was a gorgeous, wonderful wedding.

    In an unfortunate situation, you did what you had to do for your father during his cancer treatments. I wouldn't wish that challenge on anyone, but you pulled it off!

    I'm sure there is more, some things I just may not be thinking of right now, some I may not have even known about. You are an amazing woman. I'm pretty sure the only one who doesn't know that is you!

    I love you very much, and I am here for you in any way you want me to be.

    mama

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  2. I really enjoyed your points and found you to be an inspiration.

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