In 2016- The Pressure Is OFF

In the last few months, there have been a few topics that keep coming up.  Whenever anything like this happens I work on tuning in and applying these themes to my life.  I don’t think things like this happen by coincidence, I think these are the ways God shows me areas of my life that need change and improvement.

These topics are:

• Trusting that my body is capable of healing itself
  • I’ve spent the last 6 years of my healing journey telling myself that my body is broken and rebelling against me.  I recently started reading through 30 Days of Prayer: Healing Autoimmunity for Women by Ruschelle Khanna.  Something she really emphasizes is that my body is perfect for me in this life and that my immune system is just a little confused.  My body’s not TRYING to make me sick and it is fully capable of getting better.  This theme keeps popping up in my AIP group, healing prayer Facebook group and in conversations as well.  I am tuned into this one!
• Spending more time in prayer and meditation about my healing than obsessing over the foods I’m eating 
  • Following AIP requires A LOT of cooking and planning.  This is necessary and not bad in and of itself.  What has become bad for me is that I am spending HOURS looking for recipes, reading every single possible article I can and literally spending almost all my free time meal planning and thinking about what to cook.  I’ve been super convicted lately that I don’t even spend 1% of the time in prayer about my healing that I spend on meal planning.  This conviction broke my heart… I’ve been working on praying throughout the day- offering up prayers of thanksgiving for the healing that is happening and talking to God about what’s going on.  I have plenty of recipes- I don’t need to gather more.  I need to talk to the One who knows exactly how to heal me and trust that He wants to bring the healing I desire.
• Setting  boundaries with my personal screen time
  • Articles keep popping up about limiting screen time for kids.  We don’t give our son any screen time at all except for an occasional episode of “Brother vs Brother,” “Cupcake Wars,” or “Fixer Upper.”  No time on the phone, no taking photos, no viewing photos, no playing games.  None at all.  We came to this decision after reading lots of articles and seeing how significantly his behavior changes even with just 5 minutes of screen time.  We also felt that as a family trying to raise our child as naturally as possible that screen time was really defeating to that.
  • What about me?? Am I not trying to live my life very naturally?  A few months ago my son told me that he hates cell phones and wants to knock them out of people’s hands.  He observed that no one spends time with each other without a phone.  Since then he’s made many such comments and observations and they’ve been really convicting.  He has even started asking me to leave my phone at home when we go on a fun outing together. I am cutting down on personal screen time significantly, living in the moment and not taking photos, going back to the “Inbox Zero” method of checking email/Facebook/texts twice a day and just being present without my phone.
• Setting better boundaries with how work influences my family time
  • This connects to the point above.  I work from home as a Virtual Assistant, I manage social media accounts for 4 companies, blog, design images and help with customer care.  I  make my entire income in front of a screen.  It’s amazing and allows me to work on my own time and schedule.  However, it also means I need to be on screens throughout the day checking in.  I’m setting better boundaries and establishing more of a schedule.   I am working on getting myself out of bed to work before my son wakes up and working after he goes to bed.  I had a pretty hairy meltdown over him growing up so fast lately- I feel like I’ve spent SO much of my time screwing around on the Internet with no purpose and then I get stressed and behind on work and I’m missing his childhood.  I’m prioritizing my family time much better and trying to help my son understand what a huge blessing this job is.
• Helping my child advocate for himself
  • I was a horrible advocate for myself until college.  I didn’t stand up for myself and was terrified of offending people if I did.  This is something I still struggle with.  My son is a VERY sensitive child and takes is very personally when people don’t listen to him.
  • His recent discussions about his dislike for smartphones has  helped me see even more how much I need to help him advocate for himself.  One example of this is that he hates having his picture taken and people pressure him to get his photo taken.  Later on, he tells me he was mad that they made him take his picture and he didn’t want his picture taken.  So, we’re working on advocating for himself and using his words to communicate his feelings.  He’s had a couple moments lately with unwanted hugs and kisses from people and it’s been neat to see him stand up for himself- obviously, he is still very young and we step in as needed but we’re helping him to know he has a voice and should always use it.  We practice a lot and come up with lots of scenarios for him.

• Taking the Pressure OFF

  • I put SO much pressure on myself.  It’s no wonder I have all the health issues I do.
  • My typical cycle is that I get tired and sleep in making myself get behind on work, skip my quiet time and feel lousy. Then I am super stressed about work making myself feel even worse and I work while my son is home from school and he gets mad that I’m working and then I beat myself up over not spending time with him and then he’s upset because I’m not listening to his words and then I get mad at my body for failing me again.  (Did you see what  happened there?  Everything I’ve been convicted about lately falls into this cycle)
  • Over and over and over again I keep hearing that I need to take the pressure off myself both for my family, my healing and my future.  So in 2016 the pressure is OFF.  I’m in the moment, following a better schedule, establishing better boundaries and moving forward instead of dwelling and obsessing over “shoulds.”

I’m excited about this year, it feels like a big year for me.  I’ve never felt this excited at the beginning of a New Year.  I have an amazing planner I custom made (post coming in a couple days) and I feel this amazing weight taken off my shoulders.

What’s 2016 got in store for you??