I know this is going to sound totally arrogant, not to mention completely insane to my nearest and dearest, but this week the first thing I want to say I love is some stuff I've done this week. I've gone to the gym every day this week and killed myself on the stairclimber (I don't know why it's 50x harder for me than the elliptical, but it is). I've written a post I really liked. And oh yeah - I also stopped yelling.
Cold turkey.
Not even up the stairs.
It's been something I've been toying with every since I first broke my "pregnant with my first kid and I'm going to make up idealistic parenting rules" no yelling ideal, probably the first time I took two year old Ironflower and newly walking ten month old Lovebug to a playground. It might have been before that, actually. I am loud. Hot Guy is loud. The kids are loud. It became so easy to just go with, "s/he who is loudest" wins. But when your 4 year old thinks it's okay to yell all the time, you realize your plan isn't exactly working the way you wanted it to.
Hot Guy hasn't yelled either, by the way. He really initiated this whole thing. His desire to be the best version of himself inspires me to be better. So I especially love him this week too. :)
The no yelling thing has also been inspired by The Orange Rhino Challenge blog. One post I recently read talked about taking time to organize - "It is necessary to do what I need to do to stay calm."
That quote, and one by Abraham Lincoln that I recently read on Pinterest: "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad, that's my religion," have been really helpful for the past few days. I also love Pinterest, by the way. But not for all those complicated recipes and crafts.
More inspiration this week came from Tia, who blogs about life with an invisible illness so poignantly and honestly.
And finally, a woman who has been a real life inspiration since we were teenagers, but who has eschewed social media until now, has joined Twitter. She's a genius and one of the best mothers I know.
I need to work on the yelling thing. Since I've started meditating, I've gotten better, but still, I do it. I'm starting to recognize, however, that it's the signal that I'm losing my grip and getting overwhelmed.
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Meditation definitely helps, but the key for me has been not to yell for any reason - not up the stairs or out into the yard or whatever. That and the other day I said to one of them, "I'm really angry right now so don't talk to me about it just yet. Leave me alone for a few minutes." A few minutes of "alone" also works.
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