Usually I don’t get this personal in our blog posts but today if you will indulge me….
Jason and I, of course, are classroom teachers and the end of the year for us is crazy busy. We worked most of our waking hours at school last week. Then hauled our kids to school with us for two 12-hour work days over the weekend, and we are getting ready for a couple of non-stop weeks to finish off the year. I could go on, but you get the picture.
I don’t want you to think that I’m complaining. Not at all! We enjoy and are honored to by our work teaching, in person and online. And, it’s not easy to find the “calm in the eye of the storm”, in which meals get eaten as a family, we talk to each other, and love each other. It’s hard to find the balance between work and family and personal time for sleeping, exercise, and bathing (because if Jason doesn’t shave his head every few days, it’s not pretty, just sayin’).
So as I was figuring out laundry, groceries, house cleaning and this blog post, I asked Jason, “Should I just give up on my idea of a blog post this week?” He said, “No, just tell them that we love them” and I got teary. Because it’s the truth. We’ve been busy, but we haven’t forgotten you. The emails you send and comments you post keep us going.
So, instead of doing a video this week. We’re keeping it simple with a blog post to let you know that we love you and offer the 5 simple things that we’ve done fairly consistently during the past week to find peace and balance during our work hurricane.
- Sleep – As parents, we don’t get to have “off” days. Like Arianna Huffington in her new book Thrive, we are “sleep evangelists”. When I wake up in the middle of the night and my brain starts spinning, I meditate. I clear my mind, or I read a calming book. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron, has been really working for me this week.
- Exercise – We’ve still stuck to our exercise routine. It’s amazing how much more productive Jason and I are when we’ve done a little exercise. And I like myself more. And I’m nicer to live with. And I’m more patient. And . . .
- Calming Plan – We talked about this last time—how to make a calming plan for each member of your family. Well, this past week we got to put our plan to use, more than once. If you haven’t made a calming plan with your beloveds, go to this LINK and we’ll give you the download free (literally and figuratively).
- Ask for help – We’ve asked for a lot of help this week. Folks in our community have come in to the classroom, run errands for us, lifted heavy stuff, and cleaned. Even our kids helped. I have a hard time asking for help sometimes. I don’t want to burden other people. I think I should be able to “do it all”. So many times when we think of being compassionate we think of giving. It is also compassionate to receive. This is going to sound weird—it’s compassionate to allow others to help and contribute to us. When I understand and believe that receiving is an act of compassion it helps me overcome the “I should be able to do it all” and ask for help.
- Compassionate Conflict Resolution – We’ve had to “walk our talk” this week with resolving conflict in our family. Right after the time when I wanted Jason to sleep on the couch, we started following our own 3-step process for resolving conflict and the conversation turned a corner. And, in case you were wondering, we slept in the same bed that night. Here’s a link to our compassionate conflict class and it’s free.
Which one of these is your favorite? Which one are you going to start doing, or do a little more? Here’s our challenge—post a comment below and tell us which of our top 5 you are going to put in place in your life.
May you have peace and calm during this busy time. May you snuggle your kids more. May you go to bed satisfied. May you have love for yourself and for your family.
Happily Family Ever After,
Cecilia and Jason
photo credit: h.koppdelaney via photopin cc
