A Case of the Cs

I call it having a case of the Cs.  The days start to follow the same pattern: Coffee, cook, clean, commute, career, commute, cook, clean, collapse.

Everything.  Feels. So. Hard. 

Being a mother and working full time can leave you rolling your eyes when someone says the words “self-care.”  People who practice self care must not ignore their hunger pains until it’s almost lunch time and realize the only thing they’ve consumed is coffee.  They probably also don’t use the bathroom with a screaming toddler on their lap.

When I find myself with a case of the Cs (as I recently have), I know it’s because I’m missing two other Cs – control and connection- and my job, at that moment, is to prioritize those Cs over all the others.

Of course, we cannot control everything that’s going on in our lives:  unexpected bills, toddler meltdowns and tantrums, coworker meltdowns and tantrums.  But we can control our response to these events. And when life feels overwhelming, it’s a sign that however we are currently dealing with these events is out of alignment with our own needs and beliefs.  We’ve said yes when we should have said no.  

Maybe the phone rang as we were leaving the office and we decided to take the call instead of shutting the door and walking to our car.  Maybe our kids asked for fifteen more minutes of TV and we let it happen, when we really needed them to go to bed so we could have time for ourselves.   In other words, we haven’t set or respected our own boundaries and now we feel powerless in our own lives.  It’s a shitty feeling- enough to make even the most positive person question their own existence.

This is where the second C comes in – connection.  Stop, breathe, and connect to yourself.  Get out of your head and into your body:  run, dance, do yoga, do cartwheels on the front lawn, whatever makes you feel your body again.  When you reconnect your body, at some point, even if it happens later in the day, or the next day, you make room to receive inspiration- the right actions to take to remedy your situation and get back into alignment with yourself.

This is a time to trust and follow your intuition.  Notice how your body feels when you get ideas.  What inspires and excites you?  Hold back on judgement and feel your way through the situation- it could be something as simple as listening to a podcast episode that intrigues you or a craving for a meal you’d like to prepare and eat.  It’s in these subtle ways that our intuition nudges us and we hear whispers of guidance.  It’s in these feelings, as opposed to logical thoughts, that we receive divine messages.  And the answers will come.  They always do.  The podcast will lead to an insight you needed to hear.  The meal will relax you so that you feel centered and can make decisions from a place of power.

Follow these steps to go from a powerless case of the Cs back to your truth, which is a connected, powerful, creative, spark of the divine.