A Minor Meltdown: Begin Again

I had a minor meltdown on Friday night, just before I needed to leave for my work shift.

The combination of some very heavy school deadlines, all the demands of a bachelorette party and wedding for my brother and his now wife, juggling church and social obligations, and adding a new job with new hours and some very heavy demands on my emotional energy to the mix didn't play well. When you combine that with burning a candle at both ends to make sure all of those things stayed relatively managed, the result isn't pretty.

It looks like several weeks of eating poorly, exercising minimally, and forgetting to take vitamins and supplements.  It looks like minimal sleep, and way more people intensive commitments than my introverted nature can comfortable juggle.  And ultimately it looks like collapsing into tears in my parent's living room as I head out the door to an emotionally demanding, physically draining late night shift at work.

And so, this week, with the pressure of several of those demands either temporarily or permanently slaked, I'm thinking about what it looks like to begin again.

To offer myself grace for the thousands of self-care missteps I've made through choice or necessity over the last three weeks, and begin to treat myself kindly again.  To eat more vegetables and less cookies.  To schedule time for winding down back into my nightly routine.  To go back to taking vitamins.  To walk or do yoga or hike.  To say no to some people commitments, and yes to the ones that really feed my soul.  To read, to write, to trust.

I'm going to loosely quote Anne Shirley again, one of my all-time favorite lines from literature.  "I'm so glad that tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it yet."

After a minor meltdown, I'm beginning again.