This week was a very important week for me. Not only was it week three of homeschooling, but it was also the last week before starting my new job at Bank of America. I'll be honest, the last few weeks were definitely not easy, but the time together as a family has been truly amazing. I wanted to use these last few days before starting back at work to savor each moment with the family and enjoy the slow pace that, believe it or not, we've all become rather accustomed to.
With our busy lifestyles, it’s so easy to rush from one event to the next while never really taking the time to enjoy what we’re doing, or maybe more importantly, how what we're doing makes us feel. The end result looks like one big checklist with us running around to complete one thing in order to get the next thing started. Conducting our lives this way has been shown to negatively impact our overall health, happiness and well-being, whereas taking the time to savor life's moments with a little internal appreciation and acceptance has the inverse affect.
So, in the midst of the chaos and confusion, I've been trying to make the conscious decision to step back and appreciate everything around me. What better time to practice the art of savoring than right now, when we have no sports, no activities, no work, and no external distractions? Adopting this change in behavior has granted me one last opportunity to treasure every second of this final week at home with my boys. Let me tell you, it was everything I could've hoped for.
Yes, it was hard in the beginning, but what new skill isn’t hard when you're just getting started? I'm happy to say that I stuck with it and it was more than worth my effort. While I won’t bore you with all the details, I did want to mention a few highlights from the week such as feeling the wind on my face while cycling down a hill, the sound of the birds chirping on our walks around town, and one of my absolute favorites, watching the joy on the faces of my boys as they all played together.
Each and every one of these moments could easily have been "just another activity," but by allowing myself to be fully immersed in the experience, those same moments have now been engraved in my mind as happy memories and reservoirs of positivity.
Trust me, if you're looking for a quick way to find joy, there is no reason for you to wait any longer; all you need is right there in front of you if you just allow yourself to get lost in the moment and absorb all the details. How does it smell? How does it taste? How does it look? Once you get the hang of it, you'll have a skill that'll serve you well not just today or tomorrow, but for the rest of your life.
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