I was doing so well.

 

It was just a few weeks ago that I was away on a solo retreat. When I got back, I was rested, focused, relaxed and ready to engage.

I don’t know what happened…

 

Right after I got back in town, our medical group went through a massive hospital transition. Moving 400+ physicians and associate providers is no small feat, and of course, it didn’t go particularly smoothly. But we’re getting through it. Then the hospital I work at changed electronic medical records and it’s incredibly complex, busy, and not at all user friendly. The weekend after I returned was Hampton’s homecoming, so I was out of town for a second weekend. Then our anniversary weekend came and we went to Asheville for the weekend. The following weekend was a huge 40th birthday celebration for my wonderful husband, which I hosted. Four days later, he and I gave the midweek lesson to our married ministry at church.

 

So now I’m a wreck.

 

Why? It was all good stuff – lots of fun and travel and celebrations! But: I spent three weekends in a row out of town, I gave a party for about 50 people (which I’ve never done before), and while Perry and I both speak and teach, we really hadn’t done a lesson like this together before, and we have very different processing styles.

Here’s the good news: one of my friends jumped in and helped me out with the food and the set up. Another friend made the special homemade biscuits Perry requested. My kids helped get the decorations together, and my in-laws ran around picking up food and doing other errands. Thank God I had help!

Perry and I gave the lesson and it went well.

But over these weeks I’ve spent way too many nights up late, either on call or working on one of these projects. I’ve been hit-or-miss with my yoga practice, and my back has been letting me know it. I haven’t been eating well (too many celebratory dinners and desserts), so my weight is frustrating me. My sleep cycle is all off schedule – I’m not ready to go to bed on time, then I don’t want to get up early like I need to in order to get things done before the kids get up. I’m back in that place where I feel like my list is running my life and I’m back on the hamster wheel.

 

But I’m getting back on track. I know what I have to do. When I get up in my head, caught up in all the things to do and busyness, I have to get my mind and body reconnected.

 

Step 1: Get sleep.

It’s hard. When I am connected to my normal biorhythms, I predictably get sleepy at 930 pm, go to sleep by 10, and am up without help around 5 am. But if I’m pushing that bedtime off to get things done, I get a second wind and stay up even later. Then the next morning is rough and I’m drinking coffee to get going and the cycle continues. If I don’t get back on schedule, my days stay out of whack. So the first step is to get to bed on time.

 

Step 2: Practice yoga

Regular exercise is a good thing for many reasons including improved sleep, heart health, stress management and others. But I practice yoga specifically to help reconnect my mind and my body. When I get crazy busy, my mind much more easily spins around in circles, racing around to be sure I don’t forget anything important. I end up in a place I call “up in my head”. Coming back to being grounded and settled take deliberate efforts, and yoga helps me to slow my racing brain and connect back to the body I live in.

 

Step 3: Do something mindless

My patterning…

 

This one sounds odd, but stay with me. If I’m busy and have too much to do, how does doing something mindless help me get things done? To clarify, I don’t mean sit in front of the TV and zone out. Actually, TV jazzes up the noise in my brain and makes it harder for me to settle into sleep. I’m talking about doing an activity that connects the mind and the body and slows you down, like coloring or patterning. When you’re involved in one of these types of activities, you need to pay attention and focus on what you’re doing. You need to stay in the lines, or repeat the pattern until you run out of space. It helps my mind to move from one thing to another instead of bouncing around like a monkey. Try it!

 

I’m getting back on track! I’ve got to do this now, before we get any further into the holiday and birthday season. I need a pretty firm restart, so I’m starting today with a fast. Of course, as soon as I planned that, I remembered that last piece of birthday cake in the kitchen. Nope – not gonna do it! I’ll be sorry later, so it’s not worth it. I want to get back in balance!

 

What do you do to get back on track? How do you get centered when you get off balance? Please share in the comments below!