It’s easy to become distracted, sidelined or let’s face it, completely derailed. In the summer season where I live, it seems that everyone is enjoying the outdoors, going on adventures, and have generally set aside their habits and healthy routines. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with this, but it does ring an alarm bell for me when I see people behaving one way during the summer, and another in the other seasons. Folks often find themselves doing multiple do-overs or resets throughout the summer, only to fall back out of their routines and end up in a shame spiral. As we head toward the end of August, many people I know consider September a fresh start of sorts. I suspect this is likely due to it’s association with the education system and kids returning to school after the summer off. All of this to say, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Get back to basics. Start small. Keep things simple. As I sheepishly raise my hand and say, yep – I totally lost myself between May and, well, today… I realized the impact it was having on my emotional and mental health. My sleep patterns have been disrupted, my food choices have been a bit too indulgent in certain areas that aren’t good for me, my treadmill was weeping softly because I hadn’t walked on it regularly for 2 weeks. I feel like I’m putting out fires rather than preventing them. Time to get back to basics. These small incremental changes will help me slowly get back into my routine that feels the most harmonious for my life.  I did a brain dump of everything in my head onto paper.I sorted the most important items and prioritized those to be done first.My back-to-basics plan, always includes a minimum to get me back into the routine, because I assure you – I burn out quickly if I don’t work my way back into healthy routines. So rather than doing a full 30 minute walk, I opted for 15.I then created a meal plan for the week, created a grocery list and headed out to the shops.My phone will be set to do not disturb 2 hours earlier than normal this week, and I intend to shut down all electronics by 6pm, and spend time journalling or reading every evening this week rather than doom scrolling, or working! I’ve also decided to get back into time-blocking and having intentional pomodoro focuses and breaks. 25 minutes of work, followed by a 5-minute break. I’m also starting my day with a return to my Gratitude practice.My motto this week? Good enough, is plenty. |
