3 Steps I Took to Give Myself the Reset I Needed

You might have noticed that I've been a little quiet the last few month. That's because business at was booming. Then I went home to visit family in Connecticut. And since then I've been having trouble getting back into the swing of things. I'm not quite sure why but I've been totally thrown off. I'm very routined so I'm not sure if it was being out of my typical routine for a few weeks or if it's what my business partner and I like to call a "business hangover" (meaning things have calmed down a bit from a very busy few months and now all of that is catching up to us). Either way, I've felt out of alignment and completely exhausted making it difficult to focus and get back into my usual flow. I've tried numerous things since July to get back in action and now I'm sharing what has actually helped with you! 

DAILY GRATITUDE

This is something I started doing at the beginning of the year but it has slowly dropped off as I got busy and just felt grateful every single day. I would mentally make note of how happy I was and why I was happy and grateful. But when you're not feeling your absolute best, it is very easy to forget to do this mentally. It's also easy to fall into the habit of complaining about how exhausted you are and anything else that's not picture perfect in your life when you don't feel your best. So this is exactly why I started up my daily gratitude journal again. I used to make sure I wrote 3 things that I was grateful for but this time I decided to go with stream of consciousness and write anything and everything that came to mind. This also included some of the difficult/annoying/frustrating things going on in my life. For example I've recently had to set some boundaries which is something that can be very difficult for me. What in the world could I be grateful for with that? Continuing to find and develop my voice so I'm able to more easily set these boundaries for my own sanity. 

Maybe it's a coincidence but almost immediately (within a day or two) we received several promising new business inquiries at Bold & Pop. And while that's not the end-all be-all of my happiness, I find great joy in what I do meaning this has had a snowball affect on all areas of my life! 

NIGHTLY ROUTINE

As I mentioned before I'm extremely routined. I had my morning routine down prior to visiting CT and I've slowly been getting back into it now that I'm back in Raleigh. However, I've been finding it harder to get up in the morning to get to the gym and I'm practically falling asleep most afternoons which is not ideal. 

It was pretty obvious that I just needed to go to bed earlier but apparently that was not happening by keeping my nightly routine the same. Typically I take my dog, Phoebe, out around 9:30pm and then I get ready for bed. I didn't want to change her schedule but I knew I needed to change mine so I could get in bed by 10pm instead of closer to 11pm. Now I've rearranged my nightly routine to getting ready for bed before taking Phoebe out and then I can hop in bed right when we get back inside to make sure I'm getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep. 

The results? I'm definitely still tired in the morning (reformed night owl over here!) but I haven't been as tired throughout the day. This is a new switch so I think it may just take a little getting used to but so far, so good! 

SET NEW BOUNDARIES

I think a big part of the reason I've been feeling so run down is because I've been going nonstop. Business has been amazing and I've really been enjoying my nights and weekends with friends with some travel thrown in every few months this year. While it's been amazing and so fun, I'm the type of person that needs an opportunity to shut my brain down and do nothing by myself. I haven't really had a chance to do that with all the fun and exciting things I've had going on lately. 

While I don't want to miss out on anything, I've had to set some boundaries. I've noticed that during periods of time where I'm feeling really run down, I need to give myself the space to recharge meaning that I'm only committing to one activity on the weekend and I need to communicate with my friends and family that I just need a little down time and/or space.

I'm sure I'll still have moments where I overcommit so this one's going to be tough for me but we'll see how it goes! 

Other than continuing to take care of myself how I typically do, I'm hoping these new adjustments will help get me back on track, give me the energy boost I need, and help me feel aligned again (because I was so in tune with myself earlier in the summer and it felt AMAZING). 

IF YOU GET TIRED, LEARN TO REST, NOT TO QUIT.