When The Smoke From Your Burnout Clears…
What I have come to realize in this past week, as I let overwhelm and burnout wash away, is that all that I am trying to learn is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I left me off my calendar this past month and found myself buried in a busy of my own creating. I took Friday morning off. My sister called and invited me out for a pedicure and lunch. I said yes. I haven’t had a pedicure since pre-covid, well actually, it was just before my last knee surgery in the spring of 2019. We went to Butterfish, a place my sis and her son like and I had never been.
I decided to give something new a try and came home to eat a wonderful poke bowl texting Pam back with how much I was enjoying it and thanking her for getting me “off the shelf” I have been hibernating on all winter. And then, I took a nap after a most wonderful call from my VA (virtual assistant) encouraging and inspiring me with a brainstorming session that was totally unexpected. Thank you, Marsha.
I woke up Saturday morning and thought to myself, “Self, what do you have to do today?” The answer was NOTHING! I didn’t have to do a thing so I chose to hang out in the comfort of my pillow nest and dream for a while. I checked my email and drifted on soft, sweet music. I got up and ate brunch with hubby and watched a movie. And then, I went back to my pillow nest and took another nap. Yep, I put me first for the first time in too long a while. Four hours later, I wrestled myself awake knowing that I would need some awake time, or I would be awake all night.
Dinner done and hubby off to his early bedtime, I settled into my comfy chair instead of my office chair and vegetated the rest of the evening on recorded shows and another movie. The phone rang and it was an old friend I haven’t seen in nearly a year. We made plans to meet for early lunch the next day and catch up. What a gift this past week had become. I reached out to other friends I haven’t spoken with in months, called a friend on her birthday and got another call from a friend who is buried herself in her own busy. What unexplainable joy to re-connect.
I am back in my office chair this afternoon to get a jump start on the next week. I had a lovely time with Shirley at lunch and we made plans to get together for some crafting time when I get back from AZ.
I have come to realize part of the “busy” I have buried myself in was an attempt to connect with my why and where am I going. I have been missing community and friends and this whole frenzied, shut down, chaotic world has been gaining a foothold on my heart and shutting it down. NO! Not this time, not now. I am not feeding this shadow dweller with any more of my time or energy.
Now is the time when we must come together, reach out to old friends who may be just as lonely or isolated as we may be feeling. Now is the time to gather our resources and be grateful for the abundance we have in our lives, not for material things or funds, but for the spiritual abundance available to us, for the abundance of friends, relationships, living and life. We are alive and we have survived, and we must find in those small daily braveries of living, the gratitude that will fuel us on, forward and upward, not looking back or down.
No matter how we are or where we are, the important part I am feeling is that WE ARE. I had lost sight of tomorrow, let all the “bs” floating around in the media and between breaths begin to stifle my breath.
I was gently reminded in one of those moments I can only call a waking dream, that each breath is a choice, that each day is a gift and that it is time once again, for me to get off the shelf and participate in fully as me in what I am doing, to put all of me into where I want to go and to move inward for my learning and lessons instead of searching outward for all the answers. I just made a new poster for the wall in front of my desk. It has just four words on it – four powerful little words to remind me to do as I say, to follow my own advice, and to live what I teach.
YOU HOLD THE KEY!
May you find and hold firm to your key, plot out your tomorrows with grace and ease, and know the joy of connecting to yourself, and build your community.
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“Click here to get my Free Gift Living An Intentional Life”
Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
Connect with Vicki here on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SacredWisdomTeachings
