The Art of Taking a Step Back

To say that I have been overwhelmed with work, which includes the Latina Lifestyle Bloggers Collective and our recent conference; and life, in which cancer has showed its ugly face again, is undermining the intense pressure I have been under for the last few weeks.
A few months back, before my own surgery, I would have kept on going without stopping, removed from everything and everyone, and eventually crashed.


This is a scene all too familiar to my husband, family and friends that have learned to simply turn the other way.
"I don't learn," is what I have been told many times over. (does walking down the aisle with a broken foot, in heels, ring a bell?)
Rather, I didn't learn until after I had surgery.
In all seriousness - surgery is scary.  I don't care if millions of people get it done without a complication.  You know your own body, at least I do mine, and I knew that a simple (medical) anything turns in a complicated mess when I am involved.
So..to avoid another visit to the surgeon, I have learned, the hard way, to master the "Art of Taking a Step Back."
As hard as it was for me working less than 60 hours a week (yes 60!), not to mention my constant need to emulate Martha Stewart, I have realized that my yo-yo way of living my life is not healthy and not productive in the long run.
My solution to my recent state of over-exhaustion was to do what I was told to do many times over:
Take time off.
Not time off in the sense that I was sitting on a beach-side cabana while sipping mai tai's, but in my sense:  Saying NO. A lot.

• No to working past five.

• No to skipping lunch.

• No to missing out on conferences and events that I really wanted to go attend.

• No to missing out on TV shows that I enjoy.

• No to running through a grocery store instead of enjoying the art of cooking before I got home.

• No to picking up the phone calls when I needed alone space.

• No to staying up when my eyes and body told me to go to bed,

• No to dismissing my personal needs, which includes my need to be a wife in all sense of the word.

And the most important lesson I learned during my time off:

• No to allowing any negative anything, anyone and the such, get in the way of my life.

So next time you feel that you need time off to recoup from pretty much anything, try this exercise:
Say NO to anything that doesn't give you pleasure or happiness, and say YES to loving yourself with the simple pleasures of life.
You might be surprised how relaxed you feel after a few days.
Yours in happiness,