Eat, Pray, Love
This story is the essential “needing to find myself” answer.
A woman takes off on a year-long journey through Italy and India in order to
reconnect with her spirit and discover what is missing in her life. Her journey
is interesting and enlightened. The thing is that as mothers with children at
home, disappearing for a year is completely unrealistic in any form. (Unless, of course, you are a completely self-centered dumba** And if that's the case then I'm not sure why you're still reading) The good
news is that we don’t have to go anywhere to connect to our spirits and our
loved ones.
The Mommy
Disconnection
This is the moment in a woman’s life in which she wakes up
one day and realizes that a week went by and she only remembers cooking,
cleaning and laundry. When someone asks her name she refers to herself as
someone’s mother or someone’s wife. She no longer seems to have an identity of
her own. This doesn’t mean that being a mom or a wife is a bad thing. The
problem is that instead of enjoying the moments of each day you often find
yourself wondering around in a fog; cleaning up after your children and doing
for them but not teaching them. Somewhere along the way, people told us that it
is our job to take care of our children’s needs but forgot to remind us that
our job is also to train our children to be productive adults. We need to
instruct them on basic life skills such as cooking, cleaning and laundry. We
also need to teach them about honest work, integrity, responsibility,
compassion, helping others, managing their finances and how to treat their
family. You are not just a caretaker and you should look at every day as an
adventure, not just one more day to get through without major injury.
What can you teach your children today? Do they make their
beds or help load the dishwasher? How many different leaves can they find in
the backyard? Do they know how to use a knife and fork or mix up a cake batter?
It’s not about
finding anything (other than the fact that no one and nothing can MAKE you happy-it's a decision-but more on that later) , it’s about creating the woman we want to be. Stop
trying to figure out how to get back to that passionate individual you were at
18 or 20 years of age. Know what? That ship has sailed and be honest, as “free”
as you felt back then, you were an idiot. Acknowledge it and quit romanticizing
about what might have been. It is time to honestly evaluate what type of woman
you desire to be and figure out what it takes to get there. If you have to
“fake it till you make it” then so be it. As a matter of fact, this is often
the best way to become that person.
- · Do you want to be more responsible with money? Start keeping track of where your money goes. Work out a budget. Learn about investing.
- · Do you want to lose weight or simply be healthier? Learn about proper exercise and nutrition techniques. Take action on the knowledge.
- · Maybe you want to be more compassionate, reliable, charitable.
- · Do your actions match up with your moral beliefs? Do you know what your moral beliefs are?
Life doesn’t happen
to us, we decide how life will go. Your life is not the way it is by
accident. Each and every decision you made in the past, no matter how
insignificant it may have seemed at the time, is what got you where you are
today. So quit whining about how awful things are with your finances, your
children, your husband, or your career. You got here by choices you made and
you can change those same circumstances by the choices you make from this point
onward.
Certainly the
attitudes of your husband and children have something to do with the turn that
your life takes. How you react to those attitudes will forage the path through
the woods and into the clearing that is awaiting you as your peaceful
sanctuary. If Sally or Johnny are having a temper tantrum, you falling apart by
yelling or crying will only escalate the situation. The way that you start your day will affect
your entire daily living. I am not a morning person but my day must always
start before the rest of the household. Without my time to meditate, exercise,
shower and dress for the day I am rather cranky. Even on weekends I try to make
it up before everyone else if to do nothing more than to grab a cup of coffee
and read in silence. Even if you can rise 15 minutes before everyone else, it
can help set your day on the right foot. Get dressed, drink some juice or
coffee, do a few stretches, or simply check your to do list for the day.
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