First confession, this is my first blog, ever. I have given considerable thought to whether or not I wanted to take on the responsibility of maintaining a weekly blog. I take my relationships with people seriously. When I commit to something, I am going to see it through, so my decision to be here for my readers every week is a big one.
If you find the title of this blog (Confessions of a Health Coach) a little strange, then let me explain. When people meet me, they immediately can see my passion towards living a healthy and vibrant life. When I tell people that I want to help everyone attain their best health possible, they seem a little intimidated. It sounds like a lofty goal for me, but a lot of people believe that being truly healthy is impossible for them. While those people rarely speak their thoughts, I see their eyes glaze over and I feel a little disconnect between us.
So this blog is meant to build stronger connections with my followers by showing you that my everyday life has the same challenges that you have. I want to be your inspiration to overcome all the obstacles that stand between you and a happy, healthy, and prosperous life.
So, having laid all that out there, let me tell you all about the last week.
We have been getting a lot of rain. For those of you not living close to me, north Texas has been in a drought for the last 5 years. Water restrictions had been getting really tight; our reservoirs for drinking water getting lower and lower. Thankfully, it has finally started to rain. In the last two months it has rained enough to fill our lakes/reservoirs for the drought to officially be over. Some lakes have come up over 15 feet! That’s a lot of water in just 2 months.
Remember the saying, “April showers bring May flowers”? It’s true. It also makes the weeds grow. I don’t know why weeds grow faster than the flowers in the flowerbeds or the vegetables in the garden, but they do. And I swear you can see the grass/weeds in the lawn and the field growing.
Normal life on our little ranchette is pretty busy. It’s just my husband and me now at home; all our chicks have left the nest. We both have fulltime jobs. I am also running a health coaching business, and am continually studying to be able to serve my clients in the best way possible.
Weekends, holidays, and any time away from work is time that can be used to “catch up” on work at home. Let me just say up front, I am a workaholic. I didn’t used to be one, but life got a little crazy, and so did I!
In this last week, my daughter moved home from college for the summer, and we had a death in the family. Family is very important to me. Life is so short, and time with our loved ones passes too quickly. I try to never let other things interfere with quality family time.
So, in the last week, I had to deal with myself feeling stressed about not having time (due to the weather, wanting to spend time with my daughter, and needing to be a source of strength for our extended family) to get even the basic things done at home, like laundry.
I swear sometimes I must be like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It’s never a question of priorities; I have that worked out. Somewhere along the line, in the last 20 years, it has become a deeply rooted belief that I must take care of everything that I can see that needs to be done. I was good at it for a while; that’s when I became a workaholic. But recent years have proved to me that not only is that kind of a lifestyle not practical, it’s really not possible; It will never all be done.
Thanks to my amazing husband, I am beginning to reclaim my life by allowing myself to relax. Most of the time I find the balance between work and play.
Earlier this week, when I realized that the reason that I was not sleeping well was actually due to my subconscious trying to resurrect my workaholic persona, I had to remind myself that, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
It is an odd sort of a thing to be the source of your own stress. We can be our own worst critic and expect way more of ourselves than anyone else ever would. But we must be gentle with ourselves. Cut yourself some slack. Peace comes with balance. We all need down time from work to enjoy our relationships with others or to just recharge.
My laundry is still getting done one load at a time, just not all on the same day. I am going to bed “on time” and so my husband and I have a few minutes to talk before I turn out the lights. The weeds I didn’t pull over the weekend don’t judge me, but my family appreciates the time I spent with them so I have reason to smile. After all, this is Texas, and it’s not going to rain forever.
