“It’s been six months since my last vacation,” I whined to
the husband in the car the other night. “I
want our vacation to come soon.” He
lovingly listened and then informed me that we had a lot of (insert expletive here)
to get through between now and then. Leave it to him to add even more ferocity
to my hovering gray cloud rather than whisk it away with hope and levity.
He was right. We do
have some “stuff” to get through between now and then, but more than “get
through” they are things we enjoy, anticipate, and look forward to. Reframing in this way lessens the weight of
obligations.
I live, work, and play with folks who experience stress and
I am in that category. What I have
discovered over the years is that one definition of stress is when your heart
isn’t where your body is. A simple way
to solve that is to put your body where your heart is—such as when my heart
wants to be on vacation but my body can’t get there yet, but will soon
enough!
Another way is to choose activities that put your body and
heart in the same location. For example,
I could sleep a little later each morning (okay, try to sleep later) rather
than get up early and write for the Williams Family Blog, yet having the quiet
time to compose is something my heart enjoys and therefore, making the time
reduces stress. I hear it is the same
for people who exercise in the morning!
And, yet another way is to trick your mind—or reframe your
thinking—that what your body is doing is what your heart wants too. You know, when you are doing something and
your mind is wandering to other things and you are creating the list in your
head of all the other things you need/want to do or could be doing (I know it
just isn’t me that does this). Well,
instead of having your mind wander, bring it back. Become mentally present in what you are doing
and find the pleasantness, even joy, in what you are currently doing. It’s amazing what adjusting this mental state
will do for stress. Disney buffs may
recall Polyanna and her “Glad Game.”
Even when there were so many things that Polyanna could be sad or mad
about, she would find the good, the happy, the “glad.”
So, while our next Disney vacation is still months away, I
am going to find the “glad” in the activities that lay ahead—visits to pumpkin
patches, soccer games, a fall parade and celebration, a theater production the
husband is directing, the boy’s 10th birthday, and a trip to the “North
Pole” via the Polar Express. Oh, so many
things to be “glad” about!
I totally get this!!! My husband teases me for talking about vacations that are 6 months, 1 year or two years away. But for me, looking forward to that trip gets me through the hard days. Plus, it's half thr fun I think!
ReplyDeleteKnow you are not alone! Keep right on Disney Dreaming! I, too, are much happier with a Disney vacation in my future. Thanks for reading the Williams Family Blog!
ReplyDelete