Daily Forecast: Sunny with Clear Skies March 15, 2017 – Posted in: Blog, Lifestyle, Self-Improvement

The alarm on your phone squawks. The oh-too-familiar sound pulls you from sleep. And it’s not with the gentle caress of a summer breeze. It’s more like the fog horn storm siren that the national weather service sends over your phone at 2 AM to slap you in the face.

You know that hitting the snooze button will be the death of the morning. But why is it that the bed is one hundred times more comfortable AFTER the alarm sounds? You swing your legs over the edge of your bed and feel the floor beneath your feet. Your legs push off and your body goes into autopilot. Thus begins your daily ritual.

Your mind races ahead to the things you need to get done today. The places you need to go. The people you need to call. Before you know it, you’re showered, dressed, and groomed for the day ahead of you.

You busily plow through the morning routine. Kids dressed, check. Breakfast made, check. Lunches packed, check. Homework into backpack, check. Discovered the missing shoes, check. (For the record they were by the front door where you told your son four times to look for them.)

Everything just happens. If I had to assign a weather condition to the daily routine, it’d be ‘Overcast’. The things that happen in the gray, cloudy, ‘meh’ area fall into this category. Even when your brain is in a fog of other thought, your routine things get done. And they are done nearly effortlessly. You don’t put much brainpower into it. It’s overlearned the behavior. As a result, your body just does.

It’s the little ‘Summer Storms’ that jolt you from the fog. Like when the puppy treats itself to your daughter’s favorite Ty stuffed penguin’s plastic eyes. (Those did NOT come right off of the poor plush toy’s face. That took real effort.) Eruptions of ‘bad dog’. Tears flow. These storms come in hot and fast and then they pass almost as quickly.

Or maybe it’s the test your son shows you. He studied for it every night for a week. He gave you so much grief about making him sit down to study. And there it is, an ‘A’. The sunshine breaks through the clouds and warms your heart. You can see the joy in his face. You hear it in his voice.

Sound familiar? No? Just me? I didn’t think so.

There’s no question that you are super mom. You manage to create the mental daily task list, and planned dinner, oh, and started the grocery list all while going through the ritualistic Overcast morning routine.

STOP! Do yourself the favor. Simply stop. Right now.

No, I don’t mean stop being a supermom or stop getting stuff done. I mean STOP living in the Overcast forecast.

Going through the motions doesn’t end with the morning. It follows you throughout the day. Day after Day. The checklist. The phone calls. The grocery shopping. Bland. Gray. Routine. You’re letting your body run the show.

How do you escape it? How do you WAKE UP from the monotone shade of routine? The simple answer is self-awareness in thought and body. Conscious brain re-training.

Say what?

I’m not talking about anything extreme. I’m suggesting small little things every single day that will eventually add up to create a day of mindful alertness. Start small. Make it fun. Pay attention to something as silly as brushing your teeth. Then on day two add to it washing your hair.

What you will discover is that as you start to open up your senses, your awareness, to these one or two small things that more will naturally find their way into your day. Your lunch will taste better (or worse and you’ll realize you want to make a better tasting lunch for the pleasure of eating it). You will hear the birds when you walk outside. You will feel your child’s heartbeat when you lay them down for bedtime.

Your conscious effort at ‘waking’ will open up a new level of JOY. A renewed sense of self. A forecast of Sunny with Clear Skies.

Live Boldly. I challenge you to give this a try for one week. Embrace the Little Things. They add up to be Big Things.