Prioritizing Well-Being: You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup

Recharging and Staying Grounded is Important to your health

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The Plan for prioritizing well-being

I can tell you life can dish it out sometimes and I’ve really learnt over the years that prioritizing well-being matters. Have you ever felt like you are having one of those days? I start my day and I feel like some invisible magical creature is playing tricks on me. I wake up with a plan, make the breakfast, pack the lunches, and get ready to roll out the house. The intention is to leave the house hopefully before the traffic turns to ants scurrying to get out of strawberry jam on the highway. No matter how I plan and prep the night before, everything is always a rush.

Irritable Triggers that impact prioritizing well-being

• I’m driving and someone cuts in front of me on the highway. I take a deep breath and exhale, with a sign… thank goodness it wasn’t a fender bender!
• Perhaps someone who annoys the crap out of me is talking her head off and I’m mentally rolling my eyes…or am I? Some insignificant event has triggered me and honestly I wonder why I’m even irritated at all.
• Maybe I jump out of sleep because I didn’t hear the alarm (I slept through it like a bear during winter) or I woke up on time and decided to do a quick scroll on Facebook for five minutes (damn where did the time go?)
• This one is a classic, I just stand in the kitchen sleeping on myself… like I’m just not ready to get started. Where did a whole ten minutes go? And then…you guessed it, the rush begins. Speeding around flinging pots, bowls and eggs to get breakfast ready. Where are the bowls? Why can’t I find the lids? Didn’t I put them on the counter last night? I’m I going crazy? I stub my toe on the cupboard and scream then I get mad.

I’m quite certain you’ve fell victim to at least one of these.

The Mood

Sometimes the mood just carries through the entire morning and simmers down sometime during the day. Other times, it just stays with me like a friend. Why the heck was I still mad? As usual, the hormones always gets the blame. Then I realize, I need to have more control over my emotions….sometimes lol!!! I must admit, sarcasm saves me a whole lot in some instances, I kid you not. And yes, I do have quite a few staff meetings with myself in these bouts of mental sarcasm. Most often it causes me to laugh out loud or have a good giggle by myself (and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that behavior at all).

Please note that my mouth betrays me at times and gets me into trouble. I am known too be quite frank and speak my mind without adding any frosting. I have also come to understand that most people like things to be sugar coated and detest facing the truth. So I have started to consciously work on myself…for the most part. I’m trying to be consistent with my early morning worship and to read some scripture just before bed. I must be grateful for the gift of life and my awesome God who wakes me up in the morning.

Reflection

I reflect on all the blessings I have received in my life like my husband and my son, my family and friends, my health and all the other simple things that I take for granted. Reflection time is good for me and I am usually calm and relaxed during this time. Depending on my mood I may listen to some music when getting things organized before leaving the house, it could be gospel (who knew there are so many various genres) or depending on my mood I might also opt for some pop music to get me pumped for the day ahead.

Side Note: So I started humming songs (that’s it…I’ve started turning into my mother!!! OMG!) when I’m getting the breakfast ready; it works sometimes to keep me calm. Nope…getting up earlier is not going to happen because I end up in the same predicament anyway.

Dealing with It, prioritizing well-being

Sometimes I go for a slow jog around my neighbourhood and it makes me feel so accomplished. I have been trying to lose some weight and to be honest it’s been really difficult. I know I need to try harder at it and be more committed and consistent to the cause if prioritizing well-being is the long term goal. When I’m not up for a jog I take a cool walk and sometimes make it to the park. I love the trees and the freshness of the air (and of course I’m tempted to take my shoes off and get in the grass!).

My husband and my son accompany me on some of these outings as we all need to shed a few pounds and get some exercise, you know.. get the blood pumping. When I’m not able to go outdoors I usually follow a walking 20-30 minute YouTube video. At some point, I realise I’m dodging snowballs and jumping up on the sofa to avoid the lava. Yes my son has commandeered the remote lol!

Staying Organized

If I haven’t mentioned it already, here it is. I love lists. They are extremely helpful and keep on track. I remember one of my old bosses at work saying “You can’t measure what you can’t track or you can’t track progress if you don’t measure it” or something like that. So I use lists for everything, mostly on my phone but I do possess some really cute notebooks and a pack of colored pens(I absolutely love stationery and I’m obsessed with colorful pens) to go with them. As I complete my chores or my tasks I just cross off to finish the list.

The Realization of prioritizing well-being

I’ve tried writing in my journal a couple of times but I always stop. I decided to make a commitment to really keep at it because it helps me feel better and I’m more in tune with myself especially as I am prioritizing well-being. It helps me feel more in control of my day and I can see all my progress at the end of it all. Basically I try to have the correct mindset during the morning and throughout the day, become more conscious of my reactions to things as they happen and control my reaction. And if I encounter an annoying idiot, I ignore them or have some water.

I try to protect my peace and not accept whatever negativity they are giving off, so I walk away. I try to rinse and repeat everyday. Some days I walk barefoot in the backyard and water some struggling plants that I have growing in some pots. I have somehow failed to keep my rosemary plants alive for more than a few months. I have tried on two occasions; maybe I watered them too much or too little.. who knows.

Recharging myself and staying grounded

All of this to say, I can’t pour from an empty cup and i need to be serious about prioritizing my well-being. Who knows, maybe a Spa Day is in the lineup in the near future, I need to recharge myself. I try not to allow people or things to control my emotions and mess up my day or mess with my mind or live there rent free (to be honest my husband permanently resides there especially when I want to do some shopping lol!). Some days I have success, other days just suck and all my ducks aren’t in a row because they are doing their own thing.

I try to think of it like I’m failing forward so tomorrow I know what I can do better. I am reminded to try to keep myself grounded and try to make good decisions about my health and not feel like I’m being swept away by a giant wave at the beach that knocks me off my feet.