Do you push through? Or do you know how to slow down?

Last week was a doozy for me. Things kept happening, one after another, and they were all sending me the same signal. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to listen. 😂

We went on a long bike ride last Sunday and I never know until the next day how that will affect me. I'm still managing post covid syndrome and my energy levels aren't where they used to be.

Monday I woke up feeling pretty fatigued. I had a lot to do so I kept pushing through instead of taking a nap like I wanted to. Monday evening, Dave, Parker, and I were standing in the kitchen talking while I was making dinner. I bit into a carrot and my jaw slipped out of place. 😳 While this is not one of my favorite scenarios, it does happen fairly regularly. I have loose ligaments and tendons throughout my body so sometimes I have to deal with stuff like this. It is pretty painful but I know what to do until it pops back in or I need to go get it put back in place. At that moment, I also heard the first whisper asking me to slow down.

Tuesday morning I woke up still feeling fatigued and my never-ending to-do list kept getting longer. Things kept popping up that needed my attention. Stress and fatigue are not a great mixture. While I can handle a lot of stress, I don't like to because I know what it does to my body and my mind. Underlying stress wakes me up in the middle of the night worrying about silly things, makes me feel like I need to rush or hurry, crave sweets and other comfort foods, and not prioritize the things I need to do to stay healthy and grounded. For example, I was having horrible headaches only to realize I was so caught up in my busyness that I had forgotten to drink water.

I came home from work Tuesday morning and was pulling into my driveway when our dog escaped from the house and came running toward my car. Thinking I had put my car in park, I jumped out to let him jump in. Unfortunately, my car was not in park and it started rolling backward. The door got caught on our gate and bent backward. The sound of the metal bending is still fresh in my mind. My car needs several thousand dollars worth of repairs and we need a new gate. The whisper started getting louder this time telling me to slow down.

Thursday, as I was practicing yoga, I felt a weird twinge in my hip. As I continued to practice my hip slipped out of place. While my jaw slipping out is painful but my hip is worse. I can't move. I have to stay where I am and figure out what to do. This, unfortunately, happens somewhat often so I know if I stay still, put pressure in a few places, and wait, my hip will slide back in place eventually. It is definitely not a fun experience and 10/10 would not recommend it. After my hip moves back in place my glutes, ankle, and back feel get really sore and painful. It basically forces me to slow down because movement gets pretty challenging. Now the voice was even louder, basically yelling at me to slow down.

So why, you may be wondering, am I telling you about my drama-filled week? 😂 I wanted to share my story in case it resonates with you. We all have those moments when we are getting clear signs but choosing to ignore them. My body and mind had been giving me signs all week to slow down. While I convinced myself that I was trying to slow down a little bit, the truth was I got caught up in the feeling of being stressed. It is so familiar to me that I can fall back into it quickly if I am not careful. The patterning is old, comfortable, and familiar, which is ironic because it is also so taxing and depleting.

For years and years, I was caught up in being chronically stressed until I got really sick and was forced to slow down. I didn't listen to the requests from my body, I waited until she was screaming at me. When I finally started listening, I had to create a whole new series of habits and patterns to replace the ones that weren't serving me. Often I would even use something beneficial, like my yoga practice, and overdo it and push myself instead of using it to support and nurture myself. I had to learn how to be kind and compassionate to myself and infuse that into my new habits.

It has taken many years of refining, falling into old patterns, relearning lessons, finding success, adapting and pivoting, and then rinsing and repeating. It has been an interesting process because everything changes, morphs, and grows. Habits that served me in the beginning changed and needed to be revisited to continue to help me thrive.

There will always be a million and one things on our to-do list. That will never change. But the urgency we place on what we have to do and whether that affects how we take care of ourselves is our choice.

We create habits and patterns so we can fall back on them even in the worst of times. We lay that strong foundation of doing something daily so that when times are tough we can take those habits and patterns and adapt them to the situation. Maybe you walk for 15 minutes instead of 30 or read your book for 5 minutes instead of 20. But you prioritize the things you need to do to take care of yourself. For me, it would have meant taking a nap instead of prioritizing the other things on my list, sitting outside and reading, or anything else that would have helped me to rest and slow down.

One moment here or there slips into a week or two of not prioritizing ourselves. It's a slippery slope that we all can find ourselves in from time to time. But with a strong foundation of habits, those moments get caught much faster so we can get back on track, we notice after a few days instead of a few months or even years.

What we do and how we take care of ourselves matters. It's all about choice. We get to choose what takes priority in our lives. Slowing down and listening to signs from our body and mind ARE important. It was a lesson received this week!