An update of where I am at right now.
You will be reading this when I am hopefully still asleep (yay for scheduling post options!). I am writing this note to you today from my cosy room.
Let me set the scene as I so often do when sending voice notes!
Cosy bed, salt lamp on, Kind candle "Rise" just blown out (a shameless plug for an epic company - https://www.kindcandles.co.uk/ ) plus the cutest hot water bottle I have ever seen. My wonderful friend Nicole gifted it to me for my birthday and well it is the gift I never knew I needed.
Ok the scene has been set. But where am I in life in general?
I am week four into my degree. Into first year. Into a whole new structure of my days and week. Every day I am oiling up my brain to learn a myriad of new things from theories of child development to how to hone my skills of observation to continuing to teach yoga to keeping myself sane and so on and so forth. I feel very much still in the thick of it.
And that is ok because it won't be like this forever. As the beautiful saying goes - this too shall pass. Right now it feels like I have every plate I own spinning in the air. A part of me is waiting for them all
to drop. To crash and burn to the floor. That idea in itself is part of an old Rachel belief. A belief that I couldn't handle everything I had taken on. That I wasn't capable. Even though, at times, life still gets very overwhelming and the plates are ALL spinning, I can acknowledge that the part of me of waiting for the other shoe to drop is healing slowly and steadily each day that I continue to show up and pursue this path.
Not only pursue it but enjoy it. To meet myself where I am as best I can with kindness, humour, compassion, fun etc. As I said in my newsletter a while ago "I am doing the best I can with what I have in the time I've got."
I want to pull out the word enjoy here for a moment. As full as life feels (I have begun to replace the word "busy" for the word full... maybe you want to try it) I have never enjoyed myself this much ever before. Partly to being slightly older and in a completely different headspace. Partly for having tools like yoga, meditation and journaling to bring myself back to each present moment. And partly to the wonderful life I am building with Sam. He has brought unending fun, love, compassion and light into my days since I first set eyes on him in 2019. He is not my other half. We are most definitely both whole individuals but my gosh does he add so much enjoyment to my life. To our life.
So I am going to finish this up shortly and if you reading this, thank you for being here.
It really means so much.
Some things that I find deeply supportive in transitional times/phases of life:
Movement - dancing, wiggling, full on yoga classes, walking. Anything to move some energy around and come back to my body. Here is a YouTube link to one of my zoom recorded classes if you fancy a wiggle - https://youtu.be/Kbe2TpnH7iA
Going with the flow - a very overused term however one that when adopted can bring much more ease and enjoyment in. This for me also tests my boundaries with surrendering e.g. when things aren't going "right" can I pause and simply go with the flow? (hmm sometimes, not always.)
Reminding myself that I am doing the best I can. And getting trusted others to do this for me too. Asking for pep talks/encouragement/reminders in either text/phone/voice notes. VERY powerful.
A new ritual. For me, I am currently trying out a new night-time ritual. For now it is super basic - before bed, spritz some Rest spray from Black Moon Botanica (a magical shop here in Edinburgh - they also have an online one. Find it here https://blackmoonbotanica.com/), a few deep breaths, write a few lines in my journal. I have been really struggling to switch off lately. I mean all 45,000 tabs I constantly have open for Uni doesn't help buuuuut once I surrendered to this new structure of not being able to close the tabs and essentially switch off that way I looked elsewhere to see what I could do to switch off. In popped a short and sweet night-time routine!
These are some musings from me and my cosy bed.
Now I am off to switch off and continue to go with the flow tomorrow.
If any of this helped or resonated do let me know in the comments below or drop me an email!
I love your way of thinking and your style of writing. There is a book in you my wee hen ❤️Letting go of the control I thought I had 🤣is making life so much easier😂💕💕💕