{photo by Mike_tn}
It’s day 11 on the challenge. While I don’t feel as angry as the Oprah show producer who swore off meat for a week and felt like punching out the vegan in charge, I am having withdrawals. Are you?
Here are a few of the symptoms:
- Worry about the to-do list that didn’t get done.
- Anxiety about the consequences of #1.
- Sadness about dealing with what was under the “busyness.”
- Feeling like a failure because you couldn’t do everything.
- Waking up in the middle of the night panicked because you feel like you forgot to do something.
- Afraid of something you hadn’t confronted in the past.
- Worry about your future.
- Jumpy and concerned and feeling something is just not right.
- You suddenly have free time that you don’t know what to do with.
- Or maybe you just feel pure happiness for the first time in a long while.
If you’re experiencing one or more of the symptoms above, here are a few tips to remedy it:
- Embrace your free time by spending it with loved ones.
- Pick up a hobby you neglected you were too busy to do before.
- Meditate.
- Grab a journal and discover where the anxiety comes from.
- Just be. That means let yourself feel sad, anxious and angry. Just sit with it. Sometimes keeping busy helps us cover up difficult feelings.
- Be patient. Changing habits take time. If you freak out every once in awhile thinking something must be done, calmly remind yourself that the only thing you need to do in this moment is breathe.
- Devote the extra time you have to making everything you do really good!
- Use those moments of failure, feeling inadequate and imperfect to practice being kind to yourself.
- Every day write down what you didn’t do and the consequence of that non-action. Over time you will realize that nothing serious happened when you let things slide. You might even discover the importance of letting others help you when you stop being in control.
- Indulge in the time you have. Get a massage. Spend an entire evening reading a magazine from front to back (I did and found it glorious!).
As always, I would love to receive feedback from how you are doing and get and give support along the way. Please tweet, comment and share the challenge with those you love.
