Tomorrow is for Tomorrow, Not for Today

One significant way we can experience comfort and reduce feelings of fear and anxiety right now is to stay present in the day we’re living in. Focusing on today, not tomorrow, empowers us to enjoy our lives today and frees us from the grip of fear and anxiety. Working through the questions below can help us to put things in perspective and stay present in the day we’re living in:

Do I have what I need for this one day? Consider physical needs, finances, emotional support needs, etc.

If not, who might be able to help me to ensure that need is met today? This can involve vulnerability and even creativity. If you need help and can’t think of anyone in your life who might be able to help with it, please let me know as I’d be glad to help you work toward a solution.

What am I grateful for in my life today? Make a list. Once you write it out, read it over and smile at all the good in your life today. Share it with someone in your life. Invite them to share what they are grateful for you, too.

Who might I check on or help today? Putting ourselves in an others-centered posture helps us to create momentum to move outside of ourselves (and any fearful or anxious thoughts we might be spinning around in) to love others well which actually helps us, too.

You are loved and there is comfort to be found in this season. Staying present in the current day instead of focusing on all of the days to come is a huge way to reduce stress and keep creativity, hope, and joy flowing! I am cheering you on as you navigate this season in health. I’m practicing this, too, and in it with you.

Our Purpose: Personal Health

Last weekend was an absolute blur. Packed from start to finish with people plans, I marveled at my capacity to do it all. I've recently adjusted my weekly work rhythm and in this type of season, I'm typically more tired than not. But not last weekend. I felt energized, present in my life, and despite a blip of disappointment that arrived on my radar, hopeful.

Sunday morning a friend came over for coffee. I was up early to try my hand at converting my favorite protein-packed snack recipe from banana nut into pumpkin muffins. Baking away, I noticed how happy I was to be trying something new by expanding my options for a healthy on-the-go bite in my week. It was fun to be back in the kitchen and to later share those muffins, coffee, and stories with my friend.

I don't know about you, but I often experience seasons when I'm a little more aware of my physical health. My nutritional choices play a huge part in how I feel from day to day, of course, but I realize taking care of myself can be more involved than that. Personally, I like to give myself room to flex on how I maintain personal health from one season to the next. I'm someone who needs change to stay engaged. Some people need stability and more of an ongoing routine. Staying healthy has so much to do with knowing how we're wired and what is good for us in the season we're in.

My schedule change has me up between 5 and 5:30 AM these days. I had no idea how welcome this adjustment would be for me. My most alert and productive time is in the morning hours and I the shift has me working well with who I am. It has afforded me an earlier bedtime which has me feeling more rested overall. The quiet mornings have helped me to feel less rushed and more focused on what my day will become. Even after a long day of work appointments, I'm coming home and feeling energized to get out for a walk and picking up the house! And, instead of opting for more time alone after extra full days, last night I even reached out to a friend to see if she'd get out on that walk with me.

On top of this, I've been pretty aware of my sugar intake recently (including alcohol). I've decided to cut back again and focus more on eating natural sugars and getting more whole foods into my body. Don't get me wrong, you will see me with chocolate in hand here and there. I'm just choosing less of it right now. This decision has freed me up to say a good "yes" and a good "no" in my days. It has also created the space for me listen to that inner voice that tells me when I'm making a choice from a motive that will lead into life or death. All of this has left me feeling very encouraged.

If you can't tell, I'm sort of marveling at it all right now. I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget how simple it can be to have my needs met. Sometimes, a simple schedule change or the decision to give more attention to what I'm putting into my body is all I need to move forward with ease. I'm feeling freshly inspired as a result of these small adjustments. This inspiration has cultivated new ideas and solutions for the circumstances I'm facing both personally and professionally. 

To me, that's how all of this connects back to living on purpose... It's incredibly valuable to look at basic realities like our sleeping and waking time, our nutrition and our physical activity levels to make the necessary tweaks that will free us up into more energy and more hope in our days. When we're taking care of our personal health, we're positioning ourselves to create the future we're dreaming of and working towards. It's all connected. 

So...

• What practical steps are you taking to care well for yourself in the season you're in? Or: What practical steps will you take to care well for yourself in the season you're in?
• Consider the week ahead. Is there anything in your life/schedule that you will tweak to ensure you're rested, filled with energy and hope?

Take good care of yourself, won't you? You matter. Don't forget.

Storms: Horizons of Hope

In the week or so leading up to Irma, I found it difficult to want to stay connected on social media. Words like catastrophic, monster, and devastating were being used to describe the impending storm. Fear was rising and spread like wildfire as people began to express their growing anxiety. With each new detail offered about the hurricane and the path it might take, preparation, evacuation and the safety of loved ones became a prominent focus. 

Offline, a friend's dad reported watching as a baker was delivering bread to the shelves of a local grocery store when he was rushed by a crowd, who picked the bread out of his hands before he had a chance to complete his work. News reports and social media posts showed stores emptied of water and lines of people waiting for resources that would help them to weather the storm. The perspective continually offered was one of lack—all of the build-up was incredible, honestly. 

It's not that it was a bad idea to stay informed and prepare for the storm. There's so much wisdom in doing what we know to be good and right when we have the means to see the storm on the horizon, after all. Personally, I had to limit my intake of the information and dialogue, though because panic and fear aren't life-giving friends. And, most of the news and the language used was positioned from those mindsets. Getting caught up in it seemed like a trap. 

When counseling and coaching people through fear and anxiety, I encourage them to let their thoughts go into the worst-case scenario. What if that terrible thing DID happen? How would you process through it? What would life become in the aftermath?

The truth is, there were some in our communities who experienced those very things. Our greatest fears about the storm and the damage it might cause became their reality. Perhaps we know these dear ones personally—their loss is unimaginable and we can now come alongside them in it. Perhaps we don't know them personally. While we might feel compassion from a distance, we may also feel thankful that it wasn't us... It's strange and messy to process through these complex experiences of grief and gratitude.

That said, most of us didn't experience our worst-case scenarios and I've been wondering where that leaves us as new storms will certainly emerge on the horizon in the future. Specifically, I wonder: 

• Did fear serve me? How?
• Did anxiety help me? How?
• What decisions did I make that left me without peace and hope as the storm approached?
• At the end of the day, did those decisions make my life better? Did those decisions make life better for the people I love?

I consider the same questions for the storms we are not prepared for in this life. When an unexpected storm is upon us, a different sort of fight or flight response is initiated for survival, but our choice to notice what's happening and live in fear and anxiety remains.   

In the past month or so, I've been adjusting my personal focus to the positive "What If's..."

• What if we make it?
• What if the damage won't be nearly as bad as the projections say?
• What if this is an opportunity for me to care well for the people around me?
• What if I bring peace into this scary situation? 
• What if the worst happens... And, what if this "seeing" is an opportunity for me to reconnect to what's most important right now?

As you look back at your experiences over the past few weeks, then around you to notice the storms you're currently facing, and finally, ahead of you, noticing the storms you see developing on the horizon, I encourage you to take stock of how you're processing through them.

Will you choose to befriend fear, anxiety, and panic?

Or...

Will you choose to befriend peace?

We really can maintain a hopeful view of the storm on the horizon, regardless of the anticipated outcome.

You Learn As You Go, Not As You Stay

It can be paralyzing to feel like we need all of the information before we can move forward in our lives. And in our culture, we use this terminology: "Knowledge is power." While this can be very true and it can be extremely wise to gain more knowledge, I've also found that we remain stuck when we seek the guarantee of certainty through knowledge.

How will this work out for me?

How can I know this is the best decision?

What happens if I'm wrong? 

These questions, among others, are all normal and necessary. Asking them is part of the process as we move toward change. But if we rely too heavily on the answers, we may never move forward because the truth is, we can't be certain. Life is filled with unknowns and we live in the tension of not knowing. Some seasons of our lives cause us to experience this tension more strongly than others. What's amazing is how these seasons, these awkward moments, often afford us with wonderful opportunities if we don't miss them. 

One of the best ways that we learn is through experience. We grow immensely when we live with a willingness to step out with the awareness that we don't have it all under control. We take the knowledge that we have gained and we apply it in real life scenarios.

Do we make mistakes? Absolutely! Do we learn a ton? Yes! 

I'm living in this reality right now. I started a new project a number of months ago and if I could go back in time and adjust my approach I would change so many things. But the truth is, the hindsight has given me insight. Though that feels painful in some ways, I have gained a whole new set of tools to employ on my next project. This is GOLD.

So today, I wonder: Where are you at in the process? 

I offer this reminder and encouragement to you: You learn as you go, not as you stay...