Are you connected to your rhythms?
For the last two and a half weeks, I’ve felt pretty worthless at work. Things seemed to take longer than they should, my team members and I navigated a lot of technical snags, meetings kept getting rescheduled, communication with our key business partners felt sticky and my normally sharp, big-picture mind had left the building (actually it felt like she’d taken a flight to Mexico with a six pack of Tecate and left me with a kitchen full of hungry kids).
At times, we all feel like this. Out of whack. Not at our best. Off. So, what to do?
I still had to work, but while I rode out this period I made self-renewal a priority. I attended more yoga classes, made my husband walk with me in the evenings, ate more fruits and veggies, got extra sleep, delegated and asked for help at work, mapped out what was essential and what could wait and gave myself full permission to feel ineffective and out of synch.
Surprised I didn’t crack the whip and call forth my inner army sergeant during one of my busiest times of year? Nope, no way. Because amidst all of this chaos and frustration, I had a strong sense that things were about to shift. This was just a passing storm. My job was to trust. Be patient. Let go. And know that when I was back in my groove, I’d accomplish all that I needed to with speed and grace. (Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened–in the last 24 hours, I have been more effective and productive than I’ve been in the last 30 days!).
The ability to trust my inner guidance– and know that my productivity, creativity and focus will ebb and flow moment to moment, day to day and month to month–feels like a compassionate and natural way to live. We’re not meant to be 100% “on” all day, every day. Author Martha Beck says our only job in life is to “rest and play” (read more). I’ve found when I follow this wisdom and attune and respond to my rhythms, life flows.
Here are three popular newsletter articles/posts I pulled from our life balance archives to re-read this morning. They all explore this timely theme. I’d love to hear what helps you stay connected to your rhythms and let go. Enjoy:
Do you go with the flow or fight the current?
Are you connected to your rhythms?
Can you be grateful for what’s not going your way?
P.S.Interested in learning to go with the flow and end struggling in the New Year? I’m very excited to be launching New Way of Being: Learning to Go with the Flow –a powerful new four week tele-course on Thursday evenings in January 2014. Stay tuned for more details on this class open to men and women of all ages/life stages and check out my just released upcoming self-renewal retreat schedule. It’s been a productive day.
Subscribe here to Live Inside Out, a weekly blog written by life balance teacher/speaker, author Renée Peterson Trudeau. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and more. Thousands of women in ten countries are becoming RTA-Certified Facilitators and leading/joining self-renewal groups based on her award-winning The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal. Her newest release is Nurturing the Soul of Your Family. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and 11 year-old son. More on her background here.
