I am kind of an intense person, I don't think I am, but I might actually be. I am an all or nothing kinda gal. A perfectionist. A person who needs all the details and to see how it all plays out in every possible scenario before I can possibly contemplate making a commitment. Yeah, intense.
Can you relate to any of this at all? I've gotten better for sure, but in areas where I am a little insecure or if a situation that feels ultra important I tend to stick in overthinking mode for way too long.
So I have started giving myself permission to start small, because as a 40 year old woman I have realized that a lot of the time that is what I am looking for. I am working on giving myself permission to just try and to just start, even if it's only a little.
For example, I am really into tracking my cycle, I know for certain that my changes in hormones affect my energy and my mental health so I am fascinated with it. With my nutrition expertise and my new found obsession with herbalism I really am diving into how all the things affect my cycle and how all of my nutritional and overall health needs can fluctuate over the course of my 28ish days. I have started all this research, I have notebooks outlined with that foods and supplements I want to eat and take and grow and when and I have this outline for a chart and how it'll be cyclical and ohh I can add skin care to it because I know my skin changes throughout the month too... and OH MY GOD!!
I have been working on this living document for 6 months, waiting for it to be complete and perfect and in the mean time I have done nothing, started and added nothing. And now I feel like a failure, I can't do anything right, how will I ever be able to accomplish an actual hard task or work on my really big dream if I can't even figure this out and I'm supposed to be good at this!!
Are you with me still? Do you have any examples of this in your own life? If you can't relate at all, just imagine this like a trip to the zoo to see a crazy lady in her natural environment.
Anyway, I was at Sam's Club and I saw the Omega-3 supplements from the brand that I over-researched staring at me on the shelf. It was right there. I took that as the sign to JUST GET STARTED FOR FUCKS SAKE!
I mean it's not going to make me less healthy by adding only one thing into my life, duh.
But I needed that sign and I needed to give myself permission to just step into the water.
Yay, now I take Omega-3's, I'm helping my brain, joints, and hormones.
So what?
But I still have my very detailed overly orchestrated cycle chart. With many more items to add into my days and months. That was still looming over me.
Here is the next bit of permission I gave myself, just add one thing every 30 days, once a month add a new thing, again it's not going to make you less healthy, but this goes back to KISS - Keep It Stupid Simple.
I can have my big list of all the things I want to do/add/take/change but when I try to put all the puzzle pieces together at once none of them go together. But if I can go one piece at a time, eventually it will all fit and the process will be full of ease and be enjoyable.
So here is the magic, here is the permission I am giving to you.
Pick one easy thing. Salads on Thursday night, walking after dinner once a week, no wine on Sunday nights, deleting emails for 5 minutes a day. Just one thing you've been wanting to start doing, without it being perfect, without it being ALL but it is more than NOTHING.
Commit for 30 Days. Just say you can do this one thing for 30 days. And if you're already thinking 'nope can't do it, I got this coming up and the kids, and the holidays...' then it's too hard. Cut it in half, you're allowed to say I only do this on school days, or even days, or every full moon. I GIVE YOU PERMISSION to say 'I will do this thing X amount of times on these particular days over the next 30 days'. But you have to be able to keep that promise to yourself. Give yourself the permission to make a promise to yourself, to tell everyone else to figure it out for 5 minutes while you take care of you.
THEN ... after 30 days, you just add another really easy thing. And add that in for 30 days, adding up all these permissions and promises you gave to yourself. How great is that?
Now I am absolutely sure I have written about this type of thing before with maybe just a little bit of a different perspective, BUT we need things to hear things in many different ways 7-21 times (at least) before we actually give something a try. So maybe this perspective will help.
If it doesn't? If you're like Sara this is old! Well, I give myself permission to write what is on my heart, even if it is repetitive.
