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Your perfect day, everywhere you look there is someone trying to tell you what that should look like. Instagram, twitter, facebook, coaches and mentors everywhere,showing us what the perfect day should look like.
Of course as a coach I can say that the only time we post those types of things are on the days where we actually get it right, for most of us, that isn’t the majority of the time. Not. Even. Close.
Its an opportunity to strive for something, and while it is an opportunity to include more healthy habits and practices in our lives, it’s also an opportunity to beat ourselves up when we get it wrong. And do we really need more reasons to get down on ourselves?
Here’s what your day might be expected to look like. Wake up early, at some ungodly hour (because how else are you going to get all this done), and sit and meditate, for an hour. Bonus points if you snatch a selfie, apply a filter, facetune it, and hash tag it #wokeuplikethis before hitting the meditation pillow. Meditate. Grab your yoga mat and head to the gym, bottle of lemon water in hand (because it boosts your metabolism and aids digestion, not to mention balances your pH. It’s all about the pH.) Sweat. Leave the gym and head for work, don’t forget to gram about how you just crushed your workout. Arrive at the office and skip the coffee machine, because your juicing and you’ve got your green juice in your bag. Somehow between the hour of meditation and the hour of yoga you managed to juice a basket full of organic vegetables, clean up the mess, saving the pulp for dehydrator crackers you’ll make later. You also managed to wash the juicer which inevitably comes apart into a million or so pieces… But it’s now mid morning and you’re glowing and smiling from the green juice you just drank. Just in time to post your favorite motivational quote on twitter before getting ready for lunch. You hit the office cafeteria, and sit next to your colleagues and their reheated leftovers or microwave dinners, and you begin to unpack your vegan, gluten-free, organic, locally sourced lunch. In environmentally friendly containers of course. Don’t forget to snap about it… Are you exhausted? Because I am…
Look, none of these things are bad, in fact they’re all good, both for your body and the planet. Except for maybe the hashtags and incessant social media updates… Just because they’re good doesn’t mean you have to do all of them… everyday…
As with everything, find what works for you, and leave the rest. When you feel like it’s time to add a little more, go for it. But it’s never a reason to get down yourself when your day doesn’t resemble what social media feeds depict as the perfect day.
Find your own version of perfect.
Here was mine. Woke up at 6am (yup on a Saturday), because I put my alarm for spin class and I need time to get ready. But not because I have to get my ass on my meditation pillow and make a green juice, but because I have two dogs to walk, and need to get a coffee in me so I don’t trip over them as I walk them with my eyes half closed. But this morning it just wasn’t going to happen, because I went to bed past midnight. Not because I was reading sacred texts or doing anything incredible profound. Instead I discovered Spotify and realized all my favorite artists, meditation tracks and mantras are in one place (I know, I’m a little behind when it comes to technology). So getting an extra hour of sleep was the more compassionate choice this morning.
But an extra hour was all I got, because the dogs woke up and started poking their noses through the blankets and under the pillows searching for my face. And well, that was that….
So I walked them, but no instagram or selfies, and definitely no hash tags. Because with bed head, sweat pants, and one eye closed, no one would have any trouble believing I woke up like this… It’s implied.
Since I was up, but it was already too late for spin class, I pulled last night’s chocolate cake out of the fridge. Salted-Almond Chocolate Cake. Because today’s mom’s birthday and while they leave on vacation in a few hours, we couldn’t not celebrate. So last night we had cake. I pulled out the leftovers topped it with a little more caramel and got out my camera while I hit play on one of the Spotify playlists I had saved the night before.
And while the cake was already out and platted, and I hadn’t had breakfast, I shrugged my shoulders and figured why not. Marie-Antoinette said let them eat cake, so I did. I brewed a soy latte and topped it with the leftover caramel, because hey, the bottle was right there. So I stood at the kitchen island eating chocolate cake and drinking a now caramel-soy latte, still in my sweats, and mantras gently humming over the sound system.
The dishes went in the sink, because there isn’t anything spiritual or ideal about doing dishes (at least not in my mind) and I hit my meditation pillow. I meditated for 23 minutes. Not because it’s a spiritual number, or even a number of any significant important (that I’m aware of) but because it was the length of the meditation track I was listening too.
I thought about going for a run to burn the calories I had just consumed, but then I thought about what my ex-husband used to say… Calories are expensive, I shouldn’t be burning them. So I didn’t. Instead I boiled a kettle of water and made a cup of tea (because one coffee is enough for me) and I sat down to write.
And it was the perfect day, because it was exactly what my body needed (cake and all). And I listened. Its didn’t resemble social media’s depiction of the perfect day, not even close. But it was my kind of perfect, and I was grateful for it.
Tomorrow may start with a meditation and workout, or it may not. Either way is fine, it’ll be what it needs to be. And that’s never a reason to get down on yourself or beat yourself up.
Take what works, leave the rest. Find your own kind of perfect. Click To TweetStay strong warriors.
David D
