Harder to write this week, as I am grieving the loss of someone important to me. It all happened so suddenly and I cannot believe he is no longer here. Grief never comes at a convenient time, and whilst I am taking a small step back, I still have a lot of commitments. To be able to function, I am being kind to myself, and that means repeatedly congratulating myself for even the tiniest of wins. Everything and anything that I manage to get done, to work out, to decide upon is progress.
As always, I resolve a lot of my issues whilst walking the dogs, because repetitive physical activity has many benefits in addressing stress (and grief is a particular type of stress). The benefits include the calming nature of the repetition of the movements, an opportunity to focus on something else, and the social support of being or seeing others whilst exercising.
Last night when we went for our last walk of the day, I made a mental list of all the little things (and they are tiny) that I have managed:
• Completing the tasks from my Marketing Manager – if I don’t provide the content, she cannot do her work and I just become a bottleneck for her, stopping her from making progress
• Remembering to reply to a friend who needed me to tell her if I was coming to an event – otherwise, my uncertainty makes her day worse
• Remembering to pack my gym kit for the office – to give me time to relax
• Buying dog food for the rescue centre I support
This morning I celebrated getting up on time, finding the car keys and charging my phone – all the little things that we must do just to keep life moving. Sometimes it is from the completion of the mundane tasks that we can find hope and positivity because we can celebrate that we’ve just done them because life would be far more disorganised and harder to cope with if we hadn’t.
Take a moment today to celebrate even the small stuff.
