Thursday, January 29, 2015

Do you DSFY?


Not always does “Do Something for Yourself” equate to you spending tons of money exploring your surroundings, or even leaving your house for that matter. Sometimes, remembering to do something for yourself can be as simple as taking time out for a long hot bath, spending an hour watching a TV show that you love, preparing a yummy meal of all your foods, or even taking a long walk to clear your head. For me, reading is a simple, inexpensive way for me to connect with what brings me joy.

This year, a good friend of mine challenged me to read one book a week leading up to my birthday in July. I hesitantly accepted this challenge- as my life usually leaves little time to sit down and enjoy a book the way I used to-, and decided to start this endeavor by reading a book that has been sitting on my shelves for over a year. This particular book is Wild, by Cheryl Strayed.



As a little back history; my father passed away suddenly on April 29th, 2013. I was crushed, broken to pieces, and spiraling into a manic/depressive frenzy months after his passing due to grief and misplaced anger stemming from that loss. For months after his passing and memorial service, we received an assortment of cards, flowers, money, prepared meals, and much more from people who knew him (both at work and personal life) and wanted to honor his memory and pay their respects. One day I found in the mail a hard cover copy of Wild, along a card that read:

“Dear Mrs. Young,

I am so sorry for your loss. I know there is nothing that can be said right now that would heal your heart, but I do believe that sharing others experiences with loss helps to ease the pain, and allows you to move forward without carrying that pain with you. I am passing this book onto you in hope that you will connect with someone who has been in your shoes, and allows you to grow from the pain.”

I was touched and grateful that someone- a complete stranger to me- thought enough of my Dad, and me, to send us something that she felt would truly help me get past what was at that time, the greatest pain I’d ever felt. Even though I was melting on the inside at the thought of this strangers kindness, after reading the book jacket, and learning that the book was about a woman who lost her mother, the idea of reading such a heavy memoir was a little too much to take in just then. Now that I'm past the majority of my grief (although I still miss my Dad deeply), and a little less raw in the feeling department, I felt this would be the perfect time to jump in with both feet and use this book as my kick-starter to my friends 2015 book challenge. And you know what- I'm so happy that I did!

I won't spoil it for any of you interested in reading this book, but I will say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love her perspective of healing after loss, and inadvertently the process of dealing with the unexpected emotions that arise after a loss. I know that several of you who follow this blog have had lots of experience with loss due to the war and/or aftermath of war; it's my hope that if you have experienced a loss that you are finding a way to cope while healing and surviving through grief. Loss is never easy, and almost always cuts as deep as emotional scars can cut, however, finding ways to cope will provide you with the strength and courage that you will most definitely need to move forward.

I hope you are all enjoying your New Year thus far, and finding ways (each day- either simple or extravagant) to Do Something For Yourself, connecting with what brings you joy, and allowing yourself to not just understand the importance of, but actively practicing putting yourself first, and loving yourself enough to take time out for you.

Health and Happiness to all
Ayana-

 

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Wake up call… and learning to embrace love

 
It’s a common phase used by every walk of life. It’s meaning varies from individual to individual, but typically anyone who hears it, says it, or even encounters it maintains on general consensus regarding it, and that consensus urges it’s importance. That phrase is…love yourself. I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase, I bet you have even- as advice- issued this statement to those around you from time to time. But how many of you truly practice it?
 
That’s a big question, and revelation I’ve had to even ask myself over the last few months. No, I’m not out there calling myself stupid, ugly, unimportant, or shaming myself for things I haven’t exactly done “right”, but that doesn’t mean that the concept of truly loving myself is one that I’ve mastered, or even consider a priority. Why is that? There is only one me- for the rest of my life. I’m living in this body, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Day after day, week after week, month after month. I’m not EVER going to wake a different person, than I am today. So in light of that, why is loving myself such a hard concept to put into action as a daily regimen? It’s almost comical that I haven’t even thought much about what loving myself really means. This is something that should be as routine as breathing, and yet it’s the one thing that I struggle with daily. And it’s not just me! I found that several of my other warfighter (Combat Veteran) wives struggle with this exact same thing!
Now since I brought this subject up, I feel like I have to examine it a little further. First- what does loving myself mean to me? Let me elaborate for you. To me, loving one’s self means treating yourself kindly and gently. It means having pride in who you are, even when you make mistakes- no matter your successes or pitfalls- finding reasons to encourage positivity within you instead of highlighting and waxing morosely in your shortcomings. For me, loving myself means that I pledge to care for myself; emotionally, PHYSICALLY, mentally, and otherwise. It means I will nurture my creativity, passions, emotional stability and HEALTH, but it also means I pledge to own my mistakes, acknowledge them and grow from then instead of allowing those mistakes to wedge my success. It also means I will speak kindly of myself, and infuse positive thoughts at all time.
Now…here’s why I say I’ve struggled with remembering to truly love myself. My days (throughout the week) start fairly early in the morning. I wake up (or I should say I struggle to wake up) early, get out of bed, immediately go check on the frogman to wake him up and get him ready for school. After froggy is ready, I rush through washing my face, brushing me teeth, makeup application, getting my hair together, dressing and gathering everything that I need for the day. I then rush out the house, usually in a hurry, get froggy off to school and brave high speeds to make it to work on time. Once at work, I am officially ALL work NO play. After a full 8-9 hour shift, I dash home, fighting traffic, pick up froggy, fix dinner, bath time for frogman, shower myself to steam away the stress of the day, take care of the hubby, wash the dishes, and finally crawl into bed by 11:30. Not much different from every other working mom out there. But where in that routine did I stop to eat breakfast? Lunch maybe? Did I take any time out at all to breathe before immediately jumping up from one task to the next? Did I take any time to relax other than the shower- which by now is luke warm because I bathed the kiddo first and used almost all the hot water on cleaning the tube before jumping in myself. In fact- what part of that busy schedule allows for time to practice loving myself? Think about my statement above about what loving myself meant to me. Am I practicing my pledge of treating myself kindly or gently? NOPE!! Not a bit. I didn’t even realize that simply forgetting to eat, or not having time to take a few minutes in the morning to just breathe before stepping out of bed, or not taking 5 minutes throughout each day to re-commit myself to taking time for breaks; all these things are examples of me not loving myself enough to put myself first.
Here’s what this revelation brought to light. In April of last year, I started to feel sharp stabbing pains somewhere over my left ovary. I didn’t think much of it. I picked up a bottle of ibuprofen from the drugstore, and went about my way. By August the pain was so severe I actually missed nearly two weeks of work! I called my doctor and scheduled an appointment to see her. She examined me and noticed that I was extremely bloated and swollen on the left side, and she decided to order a MRI just to rule out any serious complications. Thank goodness she did that! Ladies…OMG ladies, when the MRI came back it showed a mass on my ovary, the size of a grapefruit, and several stringy pieces of tissue absorbing the entire left tube and lower intestine. I FREAKED! Do I have cancer? Am I going to be ok? Will I need surgery? All these questions clouded my mind and completely brought all upcoming events (both at work and personal life) to a halt. I am happy to report that it was not cancer!! But it was (is) Endometriosis. I had a cyst on my ovary that grew 5 times the size it ever would have due to endometriosis. I also had a ton of endometriosis completely encasing my left side including the end portion of my intestine, left fallopian tube, outer left quadrant of my uterus, and wrapping itself tightly around the affected area to a point where blood circulation had been compromised. In short, I was closer to meeting my maker than I ever want to be in my youthful years. I had endometriosis for more than 4 years, and I never even knew it, and I didn’t know it because I WAS NOT TAKING CARE OF MYSELF. I didn’t take time out to listen to my body, because I don’t stop long enough to even think about my body. I didn’t even stop to question my health once the pain started. I just figured it was a strange cramp, or even gas.
My point is, overlooking things as small as properly hydrating myself, nourishing myself by way of GOOD food (no fast food ladies), resting a full 8 hours at night, or even taking time to listen to my body- as pain is indicative of a problem- are all things one should do in conjunction with loving yourself. If I don’t care for me, who will? I suddenly was faced with a wakeup call- take care of yourself, or there won’t be a YOU to take care of again. It’s harsh to put it to term in that form, but ultimately it’s so true. As I sat in the recovery room after surgery, I asked an on call nurse (whom I’d spoken to before and discussed my diagnosis with) what could I do to encourage healing and prevent this issues from becoming this bad again, and her answer blew me away. She told me that my diet (what I thought was good food at the time), stress (not new news at all), inactivity (healthy exercise or active lifestyle), and of all things, SODA, contribute to healthy management of endometriosis. Why didn’t I know that the combination of all these things, could cause a reproductive issue? It blew my mind, and I knew I had to change something really soon! So I did! I had the surgery, stopped eating nasty foods, and went back to my vegan roots, cut of soda all together (no soda in over a month!), and also decided to cut out processed foods and excessive sugars. Within one month I have lost 26 pounds, and have already started to feel a difference in my breathing, mobility, sleep, and (surprise, surprise) my mood! I’m happy! No, really- I wake up happy!
I learned a good lesson, that luckily did not cost my life, but it’s an important lesson that I wanted to share with all of you. You see, loving yourself isn’t always you looking in a mirror and loving what you see. It goes so much deeper than that. Think about it, when you are in love with someone, they have your complete attention don’t they? Of course you still can maintain a job, kids, friends, and everything else- I mean, loving someone won’t consume you to a point where there is nothing else other that your object of affection. Loving anything typically means you will care for it. You will view it highly, and it will become a focal point in your everyday life. That is what it means to love- so why not apply that love to you! In loving yourself, you will (despite our crazy busy lives), make it a point to make you a priority EVERYDAY. I’m not saying make yourself a priority all day every day, but every day you should be taking time to think about you. What drives you? What excites you? What motivates you? What do you need for your own growth and physical and emotional health? And it doesn’t just stop with your physical health, there is an entirely separate issue of our mental health to consider as well. I was more prone to criticize myself, before I would ever praise myself. I would come down hard on myself if I couldn’t do something for someone, or if I didn’t do enough. Want to know what that did to me? I can tell you it took it’s toll physically, and made me sick.
We have to take a stand, and take care of ourselves always. So here are some suggestions on how to do that even starting small.
1)  Take 5 minutes in the morning once you wake up to meditate. You can do this by connecting to anything that calms you. You can choose to pray, or you can close your eyes and think of things that make you happy. You can even grab your iPod and play a song that lifts your spirits, or clams you. Anything goes, as long as you don’t leave your bed for at least 5 solid minutes. Breathe deep, and connect with you
2)  Water heals all things. Drink at least two 8 ounce classes of water first thing in the morning. It’s suggested to drink 8 6 ounce glasses, but I’ve confirmed with a physician that two 8 ounce glasses will suffice. This process of drinking water soon after you wake will help rehydrate your body as we often dehydrate overnight. This will also help to kick start your body and energy levels. Drink lots of water throughout your day as well.
3)  Kick caffeine- now don’t kill me ok… I’ve heard many times that drinking coffee can actually cause multiple health issues later on in life. Try drinking a cup of green tea instead, and if you are looking for energy throughout the day, eat granola bars, and energy fueled veggies and fruit for lunch.
4)  Learning to walk again- Walk peeps! Oh what walking for at least 30 minutes each day can do for your body, mind, improving lung function, weight loss, and so much more.
5)  Take 30 minutes at night before bed to lay silently. No TV, no music, no light, just you. It’s fairly common knowledge that getting into a quiet space at night for at least 30 minutes prior to bed will promote healthy sleep. This is important for us ladies because our combat vets often have nightmares that wake us throughout the night. If you watch TV right before bed, your mind is still stimulated and often doesn’t completely shut down to allow for restful sleep. This combined with being woken up by nightmares of your loved one, and really prevent a healthy sleep schedule, which leaves you tired, confused, and actually trigger you to eat comfort foods throughout the day that could be equally damaging to your body and overall health. By shutting everything down and lying in bed for 30 minutes prior to bed, you allow your mind to quiet down, thus allowing you to fall into a restful sleep, which will promote better focus, energy, circulation, and even burn calories over the duration of your sleep!
Remember, these are just small cookie cutter steps you can take to kick start your overall journey, but they are all very important factors of loving yourself.  I’m not saying you should completely omit the notion of caring for your combat vet or children, but what I am saying is that if you don’t find a way to incorporate taking care of you as a priority, the results could be devastating. It’s worth it, you are worth it, so just do it already. Believe me when I say, you won’t regret it when you do.
Until next time
Health and Happiness to all!
Ayana-

In Case you foolishly forgot...

 
Happy New Year! So…did you miss us? Well, we certainly missed all of you.
It’s been a while since my last blog post- life literally became far too complicated for me to find adequate time to blog the way I wanted to blog. But, blah, blah right; we all get busy, and because of that, I plan on making it a point in 2015 to make more time for blogging and connecting with all of you.
 Lots of wonderful things have happened for me and my crew- the adoption of my 4 year old son is almost complete! I had surgery…boo! Work, mommy life, etc- which I thoroughly intend to put into words and share here, so look forward to many more post from both myself and Em.  
It’s a new year, and we hope you are all taking time for yourself, remembering to breathe through the storms, and enjoy every bit of the sun whenever possible. I have a TON of information to blog about, resources that I’ve found, and lots of fun stories and adventures to share. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs- I think you'll find them useful.
 
Health and Happiness to you all!
Ayana