Chase, 3rd Grade, John Stewart Elementary

“Time is not the enemy, rather it is our impatience.”  ~Author Unknown

Yesterday morning at my house was running right on schedule. We were all doing what we were supposed to in order to get out the door on time on the kid’s first day back from the 4 day weekend. I had just finished getting dressed for work when Chase, my 3rd grader, came into my room. His sweet, little face was all red and blotchy and huge alligator tears were streaming from his big brown eyes.  Totally taken off guard, I thought he was hurt. After a long hug it started to become more clear that was not the case. He was struggling with going back to school and getting in swing of things after the fun, long weekend.

We’ve all had that feeling to some degree, right?  Knowing we have to do something that we anticipate as being difficult, “no fun” and going to take forever!!! I could completely sympathize but….he needed to go to school nonetheless, so this called for a loving (but rather speedy because we were all going to be LATE) reality check from Mom!

Just like Chase, we have the choice to focus on whatever we want when it comes to getting healthy. We can get ourselves all worked up worrying about how hard it’s going to be, how long it’s going to take and even how much we really wish we didn’t have to do it!!   OR we can get real and remind ourselves that actually doing it is far less painful that the procrastination and anticipation of it! Our level of enjoyment in any activity is much more directly related to our attitude than the activity its self. It’s our responsibility to stand guard against our own thoughts. We have control over which thoughts we choose to live by and believe. If we talk ourselves into believing that losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle is painful and difficult, it will be, whether it’s true or not.

As Chase and I talked about all the good things going on at school that day (it took a while but eventually he came around!) he started to realize that a lot of his fear was stemming from “what ifs”. What if I have a lot of homework? What if I miss you, Mom? What if the guided reading is hard? My answer to him was the same one I remind myself of when in a challenging situation–take it ONE MOMENT AT A TIME and you will be able to handle whatever arises.

Let’s face it, his guided reading might be hard just like there are times when saying no to the Captain Crunch cereal (with Crunchberries) at 10 o’clock at night is hard. But will worrying about it ahead of time help? Quite the contrary..It only makes it worse!! Learning to relax and live in the moment is no easier for me than it is for Chase but I know from experience it works. I’d like to be able to plan everything in advance and know exactly what’s going to happen and when, but that isn’t how life works. So rather than worry and fight it, we can flow with it by reminding ourselves and each other that we can (and will) handle anything that comes up. The best part? More often than not what we worry about never materializes!! And if it does, it isn’t that big of a deal because we are no longer afraid.—-

That afternoon, I made sure I was home from work by 3:30pm so that I could spend some quality time with Chase. After all, he probably really missed me, right? WRONG! He threw open the door, dropped his backpack, hugged me and said “Had a great day and it went fast! Don’t have the guided reading homework I thought I would. Can I go to Preston’s (his cousin) and play??”.  So much for all that fear!

This is a good lesson for all of us! Stay strong against your own negative self talk today. Don’t allow your mind to wander to the “what ifs”. You can make the choices you need to make today to lose the weight you want to lose and be healthy and happy.  It’s one choice, one meal, one day at a time.  Stay present and surround yourself with as much positive reinforcement you possible. Enjoy!!