My defunk challenge is working!

19^th February 2018

None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an afterthought. Eat the delicious food.  Walk in the sunshine.  Jump in the ocean.  Say the truth that you’re carrying in your heart like hidden treasure.  Be silly.  Be kind. Be weird.  There’s no time for anything else. 

My bestie sent me the above quote in the early hours of this morning, I’m not sure she sent it because she knows I like a good quote or she was trying to tell me something.  Either way, I’m glad she did.  Yesterday I had a good think whilst walking, I’ve been doing the thinking thing a lot this last week since realising I needed to get out of my funk.  Images on facebook from previous years ‘on this day’ have also been giving me food for thought.  Anyway I decided when it heats up a bit out there, I’m going to go have me a good walk up a big hill somewhere, I will work it round mom somehow, even if it means taking a day off work.

I can’t wait for the weather to warm up, I want to get in my garden and paint the fence panels and the shed, start clearing up, but I’m a fair weather gardener, I’m not going to lie.

Anyway back to February and my de funk challenge, today should be easy enough, yeah I do want to start doing more stuff but for this month I want to reconnect with myself first and that means relaxing and resting when I get the chance, which isn’t always easy.  Yesterday was a real challenge, mom was, well let’s say changeable, nothing we put on tele was working, and she had an ‘opinion’ on everything which spoils watching everything to be honest.  I even resorted to doing the washing up to escape it, now that’s when you know it’s getting bad.   Today’s challenge;

Day 10 – 19^th Feb - Slow down, sit down and watch the sunset (or sunrise)

I’ll enjoy that, will definitely do the sunrise and will try to remember to do the sunset too, this challenge is about stopping and reconnecting with nature and myself, being in the now, above living in the moment and being mindful.  So many of us are waiting for Friday, for summer, for something to happen but the truth is happiness is achieved when we stop waiting for it to arrive and make the most of the moment we are in now. 

People keep telling me I need some respite, that’s not particularly true, what I need is to be able to live in the now and take the good moments when they come along but be able to tolerate the not so good and the downright awful.  They’re not going away.

I don’t want to change my life, I want to be able to handle it.  Yesterday when I was thinking, a friend came to mind, she and so many other people out there has a severely autistic child and I thought it must be similar to having a mom with Alzheimer’s, I wondered if she got as frustrated as I do at times, how she handled not being able to scream at the person behaving in a way that they cannot help but that is really difficult to handle because it’s not rationale.  I was suddenly full of admiration and respect for parents and carers all over the world who just do it without fuss and with love.

Back to being mindful, how do we do it successfully, for starters don’t believe your thoughts, and don’t take yourself too seriously.  At the same time don’t try to avoid or deny your emotions, it’s okay to feel sad, mad or whatever way you want to because like all things they come and go, time passes, emotions pass, people pass xx

Do things one at a time, stop multitasking so much, especially eating, stop – sit down – taste it - appreciate it – enjoy it.  How many of us say ‘I just love food’ and never actually taste it because we’re too busy shovelling it in. 

One suggestion to being more mindful is to turn everyday tasks into mindful moments, this one seems random to me but I have to say washing up yesterday I just focused on the getting things clean rather than everything else that was going on in my world, I think they call that respite J it’s having a break from the situation anyway, however small, that brief interval gave me the breathing time I needed.

Mindful people get outdoors and embrace the beauty of nature, which was why I decided I wanted to walk up a big hill yesterday, I recalled how it used to clear my mind literally, I’d start my walk and my head would be full of stuff, by the end of my walk I had nothing going on in there at all, I would be just breathing and walking and enjoying the views.  Maybe I won’t wait for it to warm up.

Mindful people listen too, they don’t just listen, and they hear what’s being said.  We’re all guilty of waiting for the other person to stop talking so we can start, observe yourself today and see if you’re doing that.  

On that notes I’ll stop talking and let you be a little mindful for a moment.  Well almost, just wanted to tell you I’m 2.5lb lighter this morning than I was this time last week, so I’ve turned the tide of the scales hopefully, I need to keep that going though, doing it for one week is easy.  I’m pleased because I haven’t been rigid and 100%, I’ve been relaxed and realistic.  I have my area meeting on the 17^th and I wanted to lose 7lb for then, so I’ve given myself a good start, now to carry on.

Yesterday’s blog was the most read this year which shows we all love to share our success and get inspiration from others, make sure you share your success with others both on and offline, in and outside the meetings.  Be someone else’s inspiration, always use the hashtag #theflexeffect when you’re posting online, if you’re one of mine I’d like you to use #bevsww too.  Why not go fill out your success story at www.weightwatchersstories.co.uk, you might even want to take it one step further and become a Weight Watcher coach, no two are the same and maybe you’re the next one we need.  https://www.weightwatchers.com/uk/about-us/careers/become-coach to find out more, if you apply, remember to put my name as the referrer Beverley Longsden.

Have a wonderfully Mindful Monday, manage the magic and make things happen BeYOUtiful.