Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
~ Albert Einstein
Did you know that moving is the third biggest life stressor after the death of a family member and divorce?
The mental chatter and feeling of nostalgia I have had to deal with lately are part of this normal-life experience.
According to Dr. Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab, we are all challenged with negative self-talk, especially at certain times in our life. It is part of the human condition. Major life events tend to bring out the inner critic.
While prolonged stress is harmful to health - increasing inflammation and susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, cancer and other degenerative conditions - in small doses, it increases our resilience.
Sometimes we have to inconvenience ourselves
We will be out of our suburban dwelling tomorrow.
Of course, we could have made the moving experience easier by hiring movers, but we risked the inevitable outcome of postponed decision-making.
Doing an inventory of what we still own, purging what no longer serves, labelling and placing what we keep where we can access it as needed is a beneficial exercise.
In the end, we are still storing more than I am comfortable with but are committed to making informed decisions about the value of what remains before letting go.
Every challenge creates an opportunity for growth
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
~ Benjamin Franklin
How have I learned from this experience?
Moving became a welcome distraction from my focus on our collective health challenges and world politics. A break provides an opportunity to re-evaluate our perspective.
We will now have less to manage and maintain, freeing up our time for better use.
Prioritizing the right thing became especially important at this time in my life. Although allocating time to pack and move was important, helping with my recently born granddaughter as needed remained a priority. It takes a village to raise a child.
Blogging need not be time-consuming. I have become more efficient. I wrote this one in two hours.
I have learned to silence the inner chatter at 2:00 AM. Initially, I tried supplements but became too zoned out into the day. While that can be beneficial at times, it impaired my memory. Now I count backwards from 300, by 7. I have become pretty good at it. Or, I focus on my breath, meditating. Or, I time travel, asking myself how I will feel about this in the morning or at a later time, as advised by Dr. Ethan Cross.
Moving is a GREAT workout. Who would have thought I could lift heavy pieces of furniture and help move them without leaving any scratches on the walls?
A weight has been lifted off of my shoulders metaphorically and physically. Furniture and possessions I once loved are gone to be treasured by others. And I lost weight while occasionally numbing with ice cream.
Very beautiful read. Thank you