My theme for 2011 is Creating Space for Ecstasy via Boundaries & Self Care.
And the only way to create that for my people is to first create that for myself.
So instead of New Year’s Resolutions I’m focusing on personal projects – such as getting better sleep, setting up & practicing a beauty self-care routine, improving the flexibility in my hips/waist/back, etc – that will help create that space in my life.
The most important trick is that I’m only being with one project at a time, and I’m being with that project until it’s done.
Whether it takes 3 weeks or 3 months or all year.
(The idea is that I’m able to be with the project in the feminine because I have *more than enough* time … but since I’m only doing one at a time I’m tricking my feminine into focusing without her turning into a guy. This trick is something we’ll be talking about in the 2011 Business Plan from the Feminine class next week.)
Project #1: Hacking Sleep – Week 1
A good night’s sleep.
Without it – my workouts don’t make a difference, I crave crappy food or forget to eat entirely, I’m living on coffee and diet Dr. Pepper, I’m tired & moody & short-tempered, I don’t enjoy my daughter or the other people I love, I can’t write or think or create.
Without sleep, I pretty much go to crap.
And for the last 6 years my sleep has been horrid.
But it wasn’t always this way.
For the first 30 years of my life, I slept 7 to 7 1/2 hours a night. I thought I never woke up during the night and always had dreams. Slept like a rock, through anything, no problems, no alarm, waking up by 5:30-6:30 am like I had a clock in my head.
And then, in 2004, I got pregnant.
When the hormones kicked in around week 7, my brain turned to some sort of mommyness that changed my sleep forever.
And while I still don’t use an alarm clock (I still wake up without fail by 5:30-6:30 am, regardless of when I went to sleep or how much sleep I got, unable to sleep in no matter what), I sleep lightly.
Plagued by whorlybrain. Hear every noise. Wake up unsatisfied & already tired & unable to handle the stress of the day without turning into an absolute pisshead.
And the worst part … this insane part of me prided myself on getting no sleep.
I still got stuff done, I stayed up late emailing and got up early to write blog posts and kept taking care of my daughter and pushing through and making it happen and getting everything done on the to do list.
That even with 5 or 3(!) hours of sleep I could survive.
As if my life is just about *survival* …
No.
My life is not about survival. Fuck that.
My life is about Ecstasy.
So project #1 towards a life of ecstasy is to create the foundation for it to happen.
To create the conditions and the routines necessarily for a good night’s sleep.
I’ll be sharing more about what I’m using (the Zeo sleep coach machine) & what I’ve already discovered (like that I get better sleep when I go to bed an hour later) in upcoming posts.
But for now, I ask you – are you just surviving in your life, or are you thriving?
Is your life something you’re enduring, or enjoying?
Are you taking in the amazing people and experiences, or are you unable to because of lack of sleep, lack of good food, poor health, draining people, or inadequate self care?
Where are you on creating space for ecstasy?
I'm Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, an attorney, mom, writer, and explorer.