Getting Back to Serenity

Written on April 8, 2011 by in Craving...Lifestyle Creation

SO.

The last two or three weeks have been what I would normally call an “emotional rollercoaster” but I don’t really think that quite covers the scope of things. I was already burned out and stressed out. Matt and I got in an utterly epic fight last week and I hit a wall so hard I thought I broke my wrist. (I didn’t, just bruised it all to hell – it’s mostly better now. Also, Matt and I are okay, if you were wondering.) I’m watching a very close friend do what appears to be slow self-destruction through her choices and she won’t let me help; it’s not pleasant at all. I’m really, really glad that I took April off and had already intended to do absolutely nothing this first week since absolutely nothing would have gotten done anyways.

I’m not normally into astrology much but at the moment I’m curious, because I’m not the only person having a rough time right now; I’ve heard of about eight or nine other couples who had explosive fights at the end of last week, aside from other people having an incredibly bad time in general right now. Surely this all can’t be Mercury Retrograde. (Eeesh, I hope not. Things seem to be evening out the last day or two and I’m not sure I can handle constant rollercoastiness until the 23rd.)

Anyways, so the point is not to talk about the bad stuff but the good stuff. The things that are helping. Which are:

  • Sleep. As usual when I come up against burnout hardcore, I’m just turning off my alarm and going to sleep & waking up whenever I want. This wouldn’t work if I had a lot of things to get done, but thankfully, I don’t, and I think the oodles of sleep is doing me a lot of good.
  • Switch off + self care Sundays. Switch off Sundays are something that I read about on Goddess Leonie’s blog & although I hadn’t used the idea before, I think I am in desperate need of having a regular disconnection day. One of the things I also realized that I need as of late is a self-care day, to just be gentle with myself and check in and see how I’m feeling and what I need, so I’m combining the two.
  • This meditation. It is amazing. I just joined Goddess Circle a few weeks ago and that meditation is one of the first ones I downloaded + tried; I’m very very happy I did so. I did acupuncture for the first time on Wednesday (which I also think helped, but the jury’s out until I go back a second time and see how I feel after that) and listened to the 20 minute version during and I was pretty effing zenned out.

There are a few other things – having calming little routines and rituals, like morning pages or long showers or yoga or making tea – but those are the things that are doing the most good, I think. If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them – and if you’re having a Mercury Retrogradeish time right now too, I feel your pain!

9 Comments - Speak your piece
  • Hannah

    Oh how I have been where you have been. It’s rough, and I agree that it seems like SO many are going through some pretty intense shit right now. I’m sorry you can’t do more than sit on the sidelines with your friend- its a helpless feeling. Unconditional love is all you can really offer.

    When I hit this kinda spot I usually treat myself to a knockout workout and it evens me out. I’m a physical person anyway, so doing something that involves my whole body and pushing my limits seems to lift me up above whatever funk I have been in. And other times its an intense yoga session that I usually end up sobbing through. Moving meditation works for me! And sleep- I firmly believe a lot of things can be solved with regular sleep.

    Here’s hoping calm waters are in store for you!

  • http://www.wicked-whimsy.com Michelle

    Thanks so much for your sweetness, Hannah. :)

    Sleep is SO NECESSARY. I actually tried biphasic sleep for a few days in…February? ish and I decided to just go ahead & mark that off my list of things to try because I could not function on that little sleep, no matter how hard I tried. Yeah, 9 hours of sleep might mean I’m wasting over a third of my day, but it also means I’m functioning and feel great for the other 2/3rds, so! Worth it, IMO.

    Moving meditation is an awesome idea too. I’m planning on doing as much Shiva Nata as I can handle this Sunday when I’m all switched off the interwebs for the day.

  • Hannah

    I have heard of biphasic sleep! From what I have read I think it is something that I could easily jive with, but my lifestyle doesn’t really work with that kind of schedule. Sigh. I think everyone has a magic sleep number- mine is 6-7 hours of sleep. Then it’s consistency from then on out. Weekends are always so hard as I am both a night owl and a morning person ;)

    Totally just went all internet field trip on Shiva Nata- freaking awesome! Have fun :)

  • http://www.theheartsvoice.com SusanJ

    Hey Michelle. You’re right, this is definitely not your garden variety Merc retrograde! This was a doozy – with Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus all conjunct in Aries.

    Sun makes things personal, Mars makes them fiery and explosive, Jupiter makes things seem bigger than they are and Uranus is the revolutionary. Definitely the energy of an epic fight.

    However, Mercury retrograde is bringing up the past into the mix and – very fortunately – Chiron in Pisces makes healing possible – thank goodness!

    We’re in the middle of some astrology that many astrologers have been waiting their whole lives to see. The best info I know on it is over at the Planet Waves blog, by Eric Francis. Here’s a link to their article on the recent conjunctions:
    http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2011/04/07/fire-and-water/
    Enjoy!

  • http://www.wicked-whimsy.com Michelle

    AHA! Susan to the rescue with astro knowledge! Thanks dear – interesting stuff, I’ll check out that link.

    It is kind of interesting because it seems like things are evening out now and improving a lot – after the extreme roughness that was the first 8-9 days of April or so, I’ve had a lot of good ideas the past few days, have made connections with things I’ve been stuck on for a while, things like that. Maybe that’s because I set April aside for reflection, which seems apt with Mercury retrograde going on :)

  • http://twitter.com/IjeUde Ije Ude

    i FEEL you! it’s been a rough couple of weeks. after a couple rough nights i’ve been reminded how important sleep is. the days of me pulling all nighters and making it through work the next day are loooong gone. i’ve finally accepted i’m in my 30′s now and my body needs its sleep.

    love that you’re writing about self-care. as i was reading your post i got a vision of an internet-wide self-care 30-day game where we share our self-care experiments and what we’re learning from it. you like?

  • http://www.wicked-whimsy.com Michelle

    Oh man! I’ve never been able to do the all nighters. I used to have friends that would tease me because they could stay up all night & be fine the next day, whereas I’m barely functioning on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, for the most part. I’m not sure if my body is just extra sensitive to lack of sleep or what – I am hypoglycemic & when I’m running on no sleep my blood sugar tends to be super-wonky so I’m sure that’s a large part of it.

    YES! I love. I squealed a little when I read this comment last night :D We should brainstorm & make this a thing – do you have my email? I think it’s in the manifesto, but if not, it’s michelle (at) wicked-whimsy (dot) com. This could be totally awesome and so much fun!

  • http://twitter.com/bellemusic bellemusic

    Your website is completely awesome!  Look forward to reading more in the future. : )

  • http://www.wicked-whimsy.com Michelle

    Why thank you Belle! I can promise more awesomeness is coming – I am in fact working on a super secret project that is just loaded to the gills with awesome :)