I recently went overseas for a week and half with my husband, traveling through England and Ireland. It was an amazing experience! We have talked about traveling to the UK ever since we got married, and being able to check that destination off of our bucket list was a dream come true!
Being able to take a vacation, thoroughly enjoy it, and then be excited to come home (and give all my kids big squeezes) was certainly a privilege that I don't take for granted. It also got me thinking about how we live life. I've been on the hamster wheel before, hurrying through life, wishing I could go lay on a hammock on a tropical beach somewhere, and just escape my life. I've also had times where I am so content with where I am at in life and wouldn't change a thing (except for some goals, those are always healthy to have!). Ideally this is where we would be most of the time.
The main thought that I had though was how can I cultivate a life that I enjoy? One that I can go take a break from the day to day routine and still be excited to come back home to that same routine? How can YOU do this? I heard a phrase on a podcast recently and it really hit home. The host was talking about self care and she said "My schedule IS my self care". When I stopped to think about that, I couldn't help but feel how profound that is. What if your daily, weekly, monthly schedule was how you took care of yourself? What if your schedule was one that felt sustainable, one that you enjoyed, and not one that you dream of escaping? How would your stress levels be? How would you feel about life in general?
It doesn't benefit you to have a victim mentality about your life. If you are always feeling like life is happening to you, and you are at the mercy of life's whims, it's going to take away your power. Obviously we can't control the external variables in our lives but we can for sure control our internal environment and our mindset. Change what you can change, which is you and how you show up in your life. You have the power to decide that much! I challenge you to choose how that is going to look.
How can you create a schedule that is sustainable?
How can you take ownership over your attitude about life?
How can you create a life that you don't feel like you need escaping from?
And then if you do go on vacation, I hope you are just as excited to come home as you were to leave!