Be Kind to Yourself

Dear Friends,

Do you ever get up in the middle of the night with a thought running through your head and you don’t want to forget it? Last night this happened to me. I decided that I could remember it, but then I remembered how sidetracked I can get, so I decided to write it down. Guess what I didn’t have any paper in the bathroom. So I was able to maneuver my way in the dark to the box of post-it notes on my table in the living room. Luckily they were not covered up by a hot spot. I also grabbed a pen and put them in the bathroom where those midnight editor thoughts come to me. I am so happy that my home is no longer an obstacle course. By the way, I wouldn’t dare turn on the light, because then I would wake up all the way and I would never be able to get back to sleep. By now you are all dying to know what came to me in the middle of night.

A lot of my God Breezes come in the form of a song or song titles. Last night was just that simple too. The phrase gets me to thinking and then I can write. The title that came to me along with the words and music was; Make It Easy On Yourself.

So here goes with my morning musing!

As SHEs we have a tendency to be too hard on ourselves. Why do you think we make huge lists? We just keep piling on so that we can at least look productive even if we get too overwhelmed by the list to even do anything on it! Suppose you did get something done. We were all taught that if you don’t get all done the things that are left go to tomorrow’s list. I am just getting sick thinking about a list that continues to be too big and I never seem to make any headway with it.

This is the reason I started by shining my sink! I knew that if I tried to do more for that month that I would give up again and throw in the towel for the very last time. I was so tired of being disorganized that I felt like such a failure. I needed something to make me feel better. I decided that I could do one little thing. I never dreamed that it would be the saving grace for me and thousands of others. We CAN accomplish something even if it is just one tiny thing. From that simple beginning with my sink, the other habits came so easily. All the while I would keep reminding myself that I only had to do this one thing. As a habit becomes automatic it is much less traumatic to pile on one more thing. This is how we all should be building our routines.

It took me around nine months to fully incorporate my habits into routines that help me to dance through my day. I like to think of it as giving birth to the new me!

Shining my sink is one of the last things I do before I head off to get ready for bed. It is part of my before bed routine. Is your before bed routine getting to be too big? Are you skipping it all together to just crash into the bed. This is what happens when we don’t pace ourselves and continue to pile on before our bodies and our minds have had a chance to incorporate these simple little steps into the flow of our lives.

It takes about a month of practice for one habit to stick with you. I went for months with the steps to my routines on post-it notes all over the house. That is when I had the idea to build the control journal. There is just something about being able to mark it off your list and go to the next item. It is even better to do the whole routine and then mark everything off the list saying, “I DID THAT ALREADY!”

So why are you trying to make it so hard on yourself by doing too much too fast and feeling like a failure! Life is just too short! Do you hear me! Make it easy on yourself by starting small and building upon those firm foundations. I did it and so can you if you will let go of your all or nothing thinking and your mission to continually punish yourself. OH and don’t you let perfectionism rear its ugly head again!

WE DON’T PUNISH OURSELVES ANYMORE! We are FLYing now and when you are loving yourself, you will do your best to be kind to you! When you are kind to yourself that kindness gets passed on to others!

Make it easy on yourself! Try BabySteps!

FlyLady

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