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Lessons on living a rhythmic life.
Go with the flow of nature, from the turning of the seasons to your menstrual cycles.
Practical household tips for spiritual people;
because balance is good, messes get old, and we aren't all Susie Homemaker Perfect.

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The Single Most Important Change you can make in order to change your life for the better. This is an absolute Must-Read for anyone who wants a better life, or to make permanent changes in their habits.

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Overwhelm and failure

Another thing that leads to overwhelm for a lot of people is when they feel like they have failed.

For example, let's take something simple. Amy gets into cleaning her kitchen. She's cruising along, doing great. Then one day, her son gets sick.

So for a week, she's busy going to doctor appointments, giving meds, and otherwise just taking care of her son. At the end of the week, she looks at her kitchen. She thinks that all of her progress is gone. It's a mess.

Rather than clean up from dinner, she goes in and hides in the Tv. Why?

Because she failed, didn't she? She quit doing it, so now it's going to take another month to get the habit established. It's just too hard....

The problem here is that she's looking at it from the wrong perspective. Instead of seeing that she can go forward from here, she looks back and thinks about failure.

If she'd look at it as having taken a vacation from forming the habit because a higher priority came up, her whole perspective would change.

Yes, the kitchen got dirty. But let's see... a sick child, or a dirty kitchen... yeah, no brainer for most of us, isn't it?

Okay, now you're back from vacation. You don't have to catch up with the last week today. Just keep up with today, and two extra dishes.

That's it. You're not starting all over, you're reinforcing the work you've done so far by "getting back on the horse."

You've shown yourself, your mind, and your life that you're committed to making the change, even if you do take a vacation here and there for higher priorities.

Don't give up just because you missed a week.

Don't give up just because you're changing your eating lifestyle and you "fell off" and had a cupcake. Just go back to what you were doing. It's a setback, not the end of all hope.

Learn to see setbacks as vacations, setbacks, pauses... not failures.

You can't fail at creating a new habit, unless you give up entirely. Remember, you're not going to "create the habit and then I'm all done." It's an ongoing process! It doesn't get easier to clean... it just becomes habit to do so.

And the point isn't to make it easier to clean, the point is to have a clean house that you can ENJOY and FEEL GOOD in!

It's about the results. The result of forming a habit to have a clean house? Feeling rested, relaxed, and happy in your home. That's the reward!


~ Livin' the Rhythm with Kimberly Weston

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