Yesterday was my birthday. As a special treat I was sent to the local Endota Spa for a few luxurious hours that just weren’t quite long enough. I lay there, somewhere between pleasure and pain, as the knots buried across my shoulders were cajoled out of hiding and dealt with, and I realised how little care I’d been taking of myself. And not just because the muscles in my back were so tightly strung my one hundred and seventy pound husband could have walked across it and not caused me to flinch.
Admittedly, for my complete lack of, and even distaste for exercise, or anything remotely healthy, I look deceptively fit. I can only attribute it to my 12 years as a gymnast. So I guess once apon a time I was fit, but certainly not anymore. Believe me – we currently have a home gym downstairs in our garage, and I’ve sat on it less times in eighteen months than I have fingers on one hand. Even if I lost a couple in a typing accident.
It bothers me, this not looking after myself thing. I mean, I’m always moaning about how I don’t have enough hours to do the things I need to, or how I never seem to make it to bed the right side of today. And then having to get up again long before I’m ready. Or how I snap too easily at the kids when they don’t behave the way I think they should. And the list goes on. But for the most part it’s all my own doing, and as I lay there being massaged it was like being tortured (in as nice a way as possible), and I felt like I deserved it. And I decided it was as good a time as any to change and I started, right then and there, to make a list of ways I could take care of me. And this is what that list looks like:
Get more sleep.
Go to bed earlier. Much earlier.
Get up before I have to be dragged out from under the sheets.
Use the extra time each morning to get the day off to a good start: think about what I want to achieve and what it will feel like when I have.
Spend some time praying.
Eat better.
Drink more water.
Read more.
Walk more.
Stress less.
Stop worrying about things I can’t control.
Dream. Big dreams.
Laugh more. Out loud.
Frown less.
Stop worrying about what I can’t do and focus on what I can do.
Actually use our home gym, at least three times a week. For no less than a half hour at a time.
Let the kids decide what we do, as much as possible and practical.
Have more girls nights out. Have girls nights out.
Be happy.
Live joyfully.
These are all things I can decide to do. And they’re all pretty easy to achieve really. So look out for the new improved, looked after version of myself coming your way soon.
And because I’m currently redesigning my blog and a new website I have a few new photos of me floating around. I kinda like this one, apart from all the freckles. But I’ll always manage to find something I don’t like when looking at myself. Something else to work on.
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Narrelle x