February 21st, 2011
Life Changes. Deal With It.
I don’t sleep as well as I used to. I mean, I was a champion, knock out, sleep through ANYTHING person.
My college roommates would joke that they often folded their laundry on me while I was asleep.
When I went out – I went out…like a light. 2 seconds in a moving car on a long road trip – out. 5 minutes on an airplane – before take off – out. 1 minute into a movie at home – out. If I had wine, fugggettabouttit (out). Give me a little white noise, a tv or some motor vehicle movement, I had no problem taking a snooze. Ahhh those were the days.
That is until it happened. The ultimate. The sleep-breaker. I became a mom.
Now, if I’m woken up at 3am by a “mommy I gotta go pee peeeeee.”…I don’t worry about her going back to sleep. She probably never woke up completely in the first place.
It’s me I’m worried about. I know that it’s a crap shoot whether I’ll go back down or be up all night. Now, the slightest noise or creek wakes me up. Needless to say snoring is my worst enemy (thanks Denis).
The one thing I say to myself over and over and over again is. Life Changes, Anne. Deal with it. Accept it.
But do we really ever accept these life changes. Or do we slog along, resisting them every step of the way?
Here are the 5 things to remind and ask yourself if you’re not sure how you’re handling a change:
- Can you reverse the change? If not, why are you trying to?
- Do you want to stay stuck in what your life used to be or should be or experience what it actually is completely?
- What can you learn from your resistance to this change?”
- How can you totally embrace this change?
- Consider this: if you keep resisting what can’t be reversed…you’re going to continue feeling like crap.
The one major downside is this: when you resist. You remain stuck. It’s not going to get better. You aren’t letting it get better. Trust me. I’ve been known to resist change like a mo-fo.
So, now, when I wake up, can’t sleep, or get woken up, can’t get back to sleep, I get up and write until the pen falls out of my hand or start a new book. I look forward to it in some sick way. I know that soon these days will be past me….and I’ll wonder how I got through them. I’ll wonder why I didn’t spend more sleepless nights recording my new mommy mania instead of crying my eyes out. Thank goodness I eventually got on that creating train.
Change is inevitable. But it doesn’t have to drag you down.
Is there a change in your life you’ve been resisting? Own up to it and then get on with living your life. You’ll feel so much lighter & you might even notice yourself smiling again (once in awhile).
That’s what happened to me.