Friday, January 14, 2011

How Our Children Teach Us!

I tend to be a person that expects that things happen at certain times.  When they don't, I tend to feel a little out of control, like life is a little upside down and inside out.  I tend to expect immediate gratification, which is probably why I never finish a project.  If it doesn't happen quickly, I give up.  I tend to expect everything I do to be perfect immediately and if it's not, I tend to get pretty upset and give up vs persevering and thinking practice makes perfect!

Through some of my posts, I have received comments such as take it slow, you're only human, you don't have to do it all at once, etc.  In fact, I got one from my last post which has made me think.  My husband tell some similar things too.  I have been attempting to potty train my oldest child.  It has not gone well!  he is almost 3 (in a month and a half) and I just assumed that it was time.  I was getting a little frustrated that it was probably my fault, that I some how was doing something wrong.  After posing a question to my twins group, I realized that it's going to happen on my children's time.  Things don't always happen on my time line.  This made me think that maybe my children are here to teach me patience and that in life, things don't always happen when we want them to, but that they happen in their own time.

I need to slow down and accept that not everything happens immediately and that it's not a bad thing.  I need to start projects and finish them and not expect immediate gratification, but enjoy the process.  They say that with children, art is about the process not the final product.  I really need to remember that for myself.  I love crafting and creating.  I love taking simple items, yarn, material, etc and then making it into a useful product.  I have books about mindfulness and crafting and I need to remember that it should be fun not stressful.

With my diet, I need to realize that I can go at my own pace.  For example, eliminating dairy should be the first thing that I do.  I know that it causes me to feel ill so let's remove that from my diet and see how I feel.  Then I can start removing other food items.

Organizing- I just need to stop adding to my clutter.  I need to start small and go slow and finish things.  For example, I have a boat load of laundry on my bed that I just keep putting back into laundry baskets.  My goal tonight before I got to bed is to put it all away.  I need to remember to do a load of laundry and put it away before I do more so that I don't end up with just piles.

There's so much more that I can write about what my children are teaching me.  I'm sure that they will teach me many things as life moves forward, but right now patience and going slow are the ones that I am focusing on.  One of my husband's cousins was talking to him about dealing with ADD and a support group that she goes to recommended that you look through a small tube to help you focus on where to concentrate, for example when cleaning.  I think it's great advice and I need to follow it!

Patience and taking time to enjoy my activities are two things that I really need to work on.

Amy

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