Small things, big difference?

I have to be honest, if anyone had said the following words to me when I was sucked down into a vortex of career negativity, I don’t think I’d have believed them:

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Actually, I’m fairly sure my reaction would have been much more visceral than that, akin to the one I used to have when proud parents would smugly declare how their little ones had slept a full 12 hours through the night since the age of 6 weeks, in marked contrast to my own little ones.

(OK, in retrospect it was probably just my fatigued perception that they were smug but I have no doubt that anyone else who has been in the lucky-if-they-sleep-two-hours-consecutively camp will be able to relate.)

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Anyway, back to those original words.

I’m aware that I now tout them regularly.

Because it transpires, in fact, that they’re spot on, in all areas of life.

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If you follow me regularly, you may know that I am currently growing a puppy.

And this involves a lot of patience and time, mixed in with a certain amount of sleep deprivation.

The upshot of this is that some of the things which I usually have in place to maintain my wellbeing have been a bit on the backburner.

And I’m missing them, and their positive impact.

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2 examples of this are my short morning run and my habit of writing down and celebrating 3 achievements in my journal every night.

Both of these previously routine activities have become a little ad hoc of late (by which I mean they’ve just not been happening).

Note: I’m not berating myself for that – I’ve just noticed it.

Which is great, because noticing what’s going on is the first step in deciding what to do about it.

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If anything, that is. It may be that the kindest thing is to accept that currently my cup is quite full but that this is temporary and I will get back to these things in time, maybe even with a well-adjusted, beautifully-trained young dog running alongside me?!

Or, I could ask myself how long these things actually take and what I could forgo to ensure that they still happen in some way, shape or form.

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So, the journalling of achievements – actually now only takes a minute or two as my mind has become used to quickly seeking out and recognising this kind of information, in contrast to when I was in the habit of fixating on the negatives and it took a bit longer to recognise the positives.

Very happy to trade in a bit of mindless scrolling for that!

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And the short morning run – that’s about getting a blast of the outdoors first thing to nurture my circadian rhythm and about getting my heart rate up for my physical and mental health, with the added bonus of increased creativity (I assume this results from bathing my creative neurons in all the good stuff resulting from increased blood flow?).

But it’s probably not feasible to get back to that just yet, with a very lively I’ve-just-woken-up puppy to manage amidst breakfast/school run/older dog etc.

So I’ve thought about the circadian rhythm motivation – I could play out in the garden with puppy or do some outdoor training, take much longer than is actually needed to feed the bunnies outside (that’s an old ruse, for when headspace is needed amidst busy household, but will nicely double up as a daylight catcher) or negotiate some kind of tit-for-tat deal with my hubbie.

And to fulfil the second motivation – there will no doubt be ad hoc opportunities to get out later in the day. Probably not my ideal as I prefer the energy burst earlier in the day, but it’s good enough for now.

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So, these are not big things, but I know that they will make a big difference to how I feel and show up.

It all starts with awareness.

Awareness of what makes you feel good.

Because then you can be intentional about what you do.

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What makes YOU feel good? ??

What small changes could you make to get more of those things into your day-to-day? ??

Because honestly, those small things really could make a big difference. ??