What’s your story?
When I first arrived in Australia partaking in a spot of solo gal travelling I observed everyone had a story. Each was individual giving the owner a reason or purpose to be doing what they were doing. Some stories I encountered were people travelling the world to heal from a breakup, finding space to discover themselves, taking a gap year from school, the last hurrah before marriage & children or celebrating a milestone birthday.
We should be careful not to fall into the trap of our ‘story’ defining us. It reminds me of the movie ‘The Breakfast Club.’ Each character had a label or story. The geek, the jock, the weirdo, the princess & the criminal. Each character played up to these roles at the start, as the movie progressed the ‘real person’ inside started to show through. New stories & friendships formed that were more aligned with each persons true being.
Last week I had a wake up call that I needed to rewrite one of my chapters in my story of life as I was being defined in a way that wasn’t serving me.
Here is why…
Every week I teach one or two early morning yoga classes. My alarm either goes off at 3:45am or 4:20pm. Pretty early hey? Especially when my natural body clock wakes me on a non-teaching morning at around 7:30am without fail. I often get alarm anxiety for these mornings & don’t sleep as well. Checking the clock to see how long I have left to sleep. A yoga teacher’s nightmare is to sleep through & miss the class leaving students locked out.
Once I’m up & had my cup of tea I’m ready for action it’s no problem at all. Teaching two classes with a break in between for Sadhana & breakfast. I’m on form, ready to work & deliver my best. Teaching the morning classes are fun, especially the Friday’s when we get a good crowd of regulars.
It’s just afterwards.
When it hits me.
Hello tired, wiped out feelings of exhaustion. Not even a fresh green juice can save me.
Usually on the drive home, especially if I stop off for grocery shopping or errands, the wave of tired swims in. I’m always telling myself:
“These early mornings kill me, I’m always so drained for the rest of the day.”
I’m actually quite excepting that by 12pm I’ve done my eight hours so it’s normal to want to hit the couch for a nap. However that nap usually fills the entire afternoon, till maybe 5pm. I wake feeling groggy & drag myself up to start making dinner & other things I wanted to do with my afternoon at home. It always feels like such a waste to be sleeping that long. If I don’t nap I walk around in a fog till bedtime.
Time to change!
Manifesting our true desires & creating a life we love from the inside out is something I very much believe in. It can work both ways. Just as we manifest what we want, if we are not careful we can easily attract what we don’t.
That is what was happening for me. Telling myself each week that the early classes drain me just attracted even more of that draining energy to the situation. No wonder I was in a cycle of constant flatness.
I didn’t want to stop teaching at this time as it added variety to my schedule. It would mean I’d never be home at night if I only taught in the afternoon. That would not be a good solution either.
Looking at the situation as a whole everything else I was doing: food, hydration, meditation, exercise & fresh air wise was spot on. The rest of the week I had heaps of energy.
The solution was I needed to rewrite my story by changing my thought pattern about the early morning starts.
Time to focus on the positive aspects of the early shift & pull more of that it. Turn around drained into energized.
I made a list of why I love teaching the early classes:
- Teaching class whilst the sun is rising brings in a positive, fresh energy to the day.
- The morning students are fun, happy & social.
- Big energy classes with focus & lightness.
- I have quite time for Sadhana between classes.
- After class socializing & lunches.
- The rest of the day free for myself, no need to rush off.
- Being home at night with The Man.
- No traffic drama’s, clear & easy runs.
Lot’s of reasons that teaching in the morning is a positive thing.
Time to rewrite & refocus my attention to these positives. Instead of saying:
“The early classes drain me”
I needed to flip it around to:
“The early morning classes lift me up & give me energy.”
Ahh what a difference this made! Putting positive energy into the situation really worked. Reminding myself how good the morning classes are & instead of hooking into the perceived lows of the aftermath.
Friday was testament to this new way of thinking. I kept saying to myself “I am energised!” I was home by 1pm, ate lunch & took up my usual position in the couch for a rest. Yes I was feeling a little tired but not the usual level of drained. I watched an old episode of Grey’s Anatomy & didn’t fall asleep like I usually would. My 90-minute couch time reviver picked me up even more. I was able to get on with some ‘office work’ for the afternoon. In fact I ended up being awake till well past 10pm without an afternoon nap.
One last step I needed to make was releasing the guilt I had associated with napping all afternoon. Instead of seeing it as a ‘waste of time’ I accepted that the extra sleep would in fact be beneficial to my well-being. If I slept that long my body obviously needed to play catch up. As I said above I’d done my days work just not in the nine to five sense so it was more than okay to have a snooze. My acceptance of napping & releasing the guilt mean I didn’t need to nap after all.
Is there a story in your life that needs rewriting? If something brings you joy but small negative aspects are over shadowing these it’s time to shift focus. Look for the positives in your situation & put your energy there. Above all drop the negative self-talk. Be mindful of your words & thoughts as what you project into the world you will create more of. Here’s to pulling in more of the good stuff.
I’d love to hear your experiences, feel free to leave a comment below.