Have you ever been up all night and noticed how slowly time seemed to pass? Whether you’re sick, up with a child or you simply can’t fall asleep, being awake all night can seem very very long. Have you ever looked back on your life and wondered how 10 years seemed to pass by so fast? Or looked at your child and wondered how they have gotten so grown up in such a short period of time? That is because the years pass by quickly. A paradox of time is that the nights are long and the years are short. The poem below really illustrates the paradox well. Written By: Ginger Hughes - No Mama's Perfect. The nights are long. When you’re finally home, hospital bracelet still on your wrist, and your sweet infant girl cries all night. When you try everything you know to soothe her and nothing seems to work, and eventually the tears of joy you expected become tears of exhaustion and frustration. The nights are long. When you rock, soothe, and sing lullabies all to no avail, and that bassinet you chose with such care sits empty, while you walk the length of your home, shushing, and swaying, and praying sleep will come. The nights are long. When the fever is high, his eyes usually dancing with delight, are dull and weary. When his little body is wracked with sickness, and you don’t know what’s wrong. When you call the 24-hour nurse line, or research symptoms online, only to end up terrified. The nights are long. When we lie awake at night wondering if our babies, now children, are making friends at school. Our bodies are exhausted from the day, yet our minds still churn with questions: are they adjusting, are they happy, have we taught them enough to navigate these new experiences? The nights are long. When the ones who once filled our backseat with more questions and songs than our ears could digest, now, a few years later, scroll their phones quietly instead. When the eyes once filled with amusement and laughter are now rolled skyward more often than we’d like, and we sit there wondering if all is well in their world. We try, but at times feel unable to find our way into the heart of things. The nights are long. When she’s out on a date, and you wonder if all the things you’ve taught her, and all the conversations you’ve had with her, will be enough. When he’s out with his friends, and you hope he'll be a leader rather than a follower, and that the heart to hearts will be lived out now that the decisions are his to make. When the car is packed, and your eyes hold hers through that window one last time as she pulls away. Yes. The nights are long. But the years? Oh, the years are short. When the little bundle that once wouldn’t sleep in the bassinet is now too long to fit, and you lay her gently in the crib instead. The years are short. When the tiniest hand that once clutched your finger so tightly, releases your hand readily and walks towards the first day of Kindergarten. The years are short. When our babies, who were just cooing, snuggling, and filling their fists with our hair are now curling, straightening, and styling their own. The years are short. When the one you thought would never sleep, would now sleep until noon if you let him. The years are short. When you see the hand, that just yesterday learned to wave while you encouragingly said, “Say bye-bye,” waving goodbye as she drives away. The years are short. When our littles become our bigs; When our way becomes their way; When our love is stretched to the point of aching… We will remember… That the nights were so very long. But the years are so very short.
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"Illness is a cry to discover a truth about yourself in the midst of an illusion. The illusion is a concept or mythology about your body or relationship or life which has developed in an attempt to protect you from feeling separate and worthless"- Donny Epstein An autoimmune disease is often described as a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your body. But, is our body really mistaken in its attack? The thoughts we have play a role in the way our body responds. Our thoughts initiate chemicals to be released into the body which in turn leads to a cascade of reactions and actions within. For example, when we have thoughts and feelings of stress, our body releases cortisol, adrenaline, and other chemicals which in turn tells our body to run away, fight or freeze. If we have thoughts of love or joy, our body will release dopamine and our body’s cells will be bathed in this feel good drug. Now, what thoughts could possibly contribute to having our bodies fight against themselves? What if you told yourself that you were a bad person? What if you told yourself that you were sick? What if you were constantly telling yourself that you were not enough? Not worthy, not able to heal and were always hard on yourself? What if, the thoughts you had that “attack” your self were actually leading to your body to attack itself? How can you change this? Change your thoughts and you can change your body. Now, it is also important to remember that some thoughts and/or beliefs are subconscious and under the surface. This means that we are not aware of them but they run in the background. They can also contribute to our illnesses. Also, auntoimmune diseases are very complex in nature and multiple factors contribute to them. However, this is one factor that you can control and change. Pay attention to your thoughts and see what you are saying to yourself. Need help? 613-761-1600 How do you get long term satisfaction in life? We know that material things usually don’t lead to long term happiness. We want a new clothes, phones, cars, etc. and when we get them, we’re happy for a moment but then, we start looking for the next thing we want. We also never stop wanting something new. This also happens in our life as well. We may say, I’ll be happy when I finish school, only to find out that when you finish school, you’d be happy if you found a job. You’ve probably said, I’ll be happy when I’m a relationship...only to say, I’ll be happy once I’m out of this relationship. How about, I’ll be happy when I get married and have kids...only to say, I’ll be happy once my kids are out of the house. This is also, not the route to long term satisfaction...so what is? The only thing that satisfies long term is to make a difference for others. There are many ways to make a difference that will last a lifetime. It’s in the way you live, the way you love, the way you care. You need to make it a part of your life. Lifestyle includes the way you love, care and give. Recognize what you have that’s abundance and give from your abundance. Do you have an abundance of time? Volunteer for an organization that you care about. An abundance of money? Use it to make a difference. An abundance of knowledge? Teach with it. The only thing that satisfies long term is to make a difference for people. Go out and be the change that you want to see in the world. We all have an expiry date. While we may not know when our day will come, there are certain factors that can speed up the date for our body. Some aspects are in our control and others are not. We will look at 5 things that we are in control of.
Are you experiencing premature aging of your body? Come in for a consultation 613-761-1600 Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Cheshire cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to go to,” Alice: “I don’t much care where-” Cheshire cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” - Lewis Carroll Similar to not knowing where you want to go, if you don’t know who you are, others will dictate it for you. Some people have strong personalities and are sure of themselves. This good news with this is that they tend to set their own rules and not let others tell them what to do. They tend to get their way in most instances. Others, are more flexible in their personalities. The good news is that they are more agreeable. The downfall is that they will go along with what everyone else wants. They are also people pleasers and may even give up what they want in order to please someone else, keep the peace or out of obligation or guilt. When you go along with everyone else at the expense of who you are, you give up your identity. You allow others to steal your identity and your power. Think of which situations where you allow this to happen. Do you give up power in your relationships? Finances; by ignoring them or allowing someone else to manage them? How about your health? Do you let someone else decide your health decision for you or do you gather information first and them make an informed decision? When you give up who you are over long periods of time, you can start to get resentful towards others or angry. Need help getting your identity back? Book a consultation for a chat. 613-761-1600 |
AuthorDr. Amanda is a non-traditional chiropractor who focuses on Neuro-Optimization Chiropractic in Ottawa, Canada.
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