The Morning After …

What morning after am I referring to?

This time, it’s the morning after the vacation or after a day off sick or even Monday morning, the day many return to work after a weekend.

What about it?

Here’s what I noticed yesterday morning (after being away with a friend over the weekend, away from responsibilities at home, away from e-mail that comes whether or not I’m paying attention, away from habits and routines that ground me):

I am unsettled, hurried, feeling behind before I start.
I am afraid of the full day ahead.
I am thinking that I need to shortcut my healthy morning routine.
I am short with my spouse.

Do you ever land in this kind of morning after?

I know I’m not alone. I also know that simple mind-shifts can be very helpful. Here goes:

1. Whatever energy I spend thinking about feeling behind or fear that I won’t get it all done is energy wasted. PERIOD.
2. No matter how much I think about it, I will never have more than 1440 minutes in this day. PERIOD.
3. If I shortcut needed self-care or centering (exercise, quiet time, journaling, a good breakfast), my fuse will be short and I am likely to blow up or react inappropriately at some point. When I yell at my spouse or send a reactionary e-mail, I will have clean-up to do. I will spend more time later than I would have spent now and cause more relationship damage along the way.

I am human. There is only so much I can do in a day, a week, a year, a life.  I need breaks, days off, rest periods. Because of this, I will experience my share of morning afters. I want to find a way to be with the morning after gently, compassionately and in ease. Here are the ideas I have today for how I might do that, how I might approach this morning after:

• Pause and breathe. Close my eyes and look back on the time off and recall joy, rest, play — the good times. Feel it. Express gratitude.
• Notice what lies ahead in the day and any anxiety that comes with it. Breathe in gratitude for the job or the children or the housework that I am able to do. Exhale anxiety.
• Remember: As I bring the restful, relaxed, grateful me into my relationships, I am an invitation to others to relax, breathe easier, perhaps give themselves a day of rest.
• Remember: When I do from ease, I am usually more productive than when I do from stress.
• Remember: There will always be an endless supply of things I could do. Always. And most of it can wait until tomorrow. What I do today from ease is enough. I am enough.

What about you?
What mind shift will ease your “morning after”?