Lessons From a Trip to Sonoma

Two hours after I arrived, I wondered why I had come.  Normally I would have loved to be there, but this time, though I wasn't able to say it out loud, I had been reluctant to leave my work at home.

My first hours were spent figuring out how to escape.  Constantly checking my phone. I remember my friend Thelma telling of a time she went to New York when she was trying to write her book.  She didn't want to go, leave the work and her routine behind. She said she shifted her thoughts from “something-is-going-wrong” to “this-is-what-has-been-placed-in-my-bowl”.  This turned a potentially challenging situation around for her--and an inspiration for me.

Like Thelma, I re-created my routine while I was there.  Found a place for coffee and emails each day (The Golden Goat), took a walk around the square while I made my calls and had all my business done before noon so I could fit it all the things.

A couple of weeks later arrived back home with some nice bottles of wine, four extra pounds, and a very stiff neck.  “On a scale of one to ten for stiffness, your neck is a ten!” my physical therapist told me. I had been so determined to make it all work, to “keep my momentum” I had ignored what my body needed.  Nothing I did helped get rid of the stiffness.

“You did what most of us do when we’re stressed,” Thelma said kindly.

“You self-correct in the wrong direction.”

She was right.  Even though my body was sending warning signals and blinking lights - I never stopped to relax for fear of losing “momentum”.  Rather, I push myself twice as hard.

Resting when exhausted was never on my list of possibilities.

Resting when exhausted is now on my list of possibilities.

I have to ask you, are you starting the month off with your warning signal and flashing lights on?