This last week has been an exercise in self control. After the newness of resolutions wear off, you have to really commit to your ideas or you risk just throwing in the towel. I have to say I’ve been committed to some more than others (can someone remind me where my gym is located?) but overall I’m hanging in there.
I have lost five pounds since the beginning of the month. My diet has changed drastically even though this week I did consume a significant amount of angel food cake slathered in chocolate icing and maybe one little Mac Snack Wrap. Whoops-still working on the ” eat healthy food on the go” portion of this plan.
Here is what I was challenged to do this week: go on a gratitude walk. That means just wander through my house and stop in each room and focus on what I am thankful for. I read about the idea (or one similar) in Hannah Keeley’s Total Mom Makeover. It is a book I picked up for $2 off a discount table after I started this New Year Plan. It is a pretty good read with fantastic ideas. Although while reading it I keep kicking myself for not starting this blog a few years earlier because clearly it’s an idea worth publishing. Too bad Ms. Keeley’s done it first!
Anyway, the gratitude walk is great because instead of focusing on dust bunnies or the dining room chairs I keep meaning to recover, I am forced to focus on my beautiful furniture or pictures in frames that sit on the dusty shelves. Doing this-focusing on the good- seems to also help me remember the how and why of everything. Remembering walking through the antique store to buy my first piece of “real” furniture; finding the dining room table while walking hand and hand with my husband on a beautiful Sunday. The pictures, well they speak for themselves-a day at the beach, a new baby, a wedding. How often do I race past these memories every day without stopping to remember how lucky I am to have them? How often do you?
Take a walk this week-through your house or neighborhood, or just your mind. Focus, not on what needs to be changed, but instead look at what you are thankful to have just the way it is.
Take a walk this week-through your house or neighborhood, or just your mind. Focus, not on what needs to be changed, but instead look at what you are thankful to have just the way it is.
Happy Trails.
P.S. Looking for more parenting guidance and tips for self-care? Check out From Chaos to Calm a guided training to help you feel better in this tough season.
taking my walk now.
how are the mac wraps?!?
they are on my list to try.
i walk past those same dusty shelves, just in a different house but today i will focus on the years of schooling that went behind all those books, the beloveds in all those picture frames, and where i may have left my gym membership as well. 🙂 thank you!