Learning to Move Ahead
Hello and welome! Pull up a chair and share a cup of tea with me. Or maybe you prefer some coffee.
I’m sure we have all had circumstances in our life that left us completely untethered from life’s anchor feeling completely unable to move forward; that we would be paralyzed in place forever. Needless to say, that is how this winter has felt for me.
Slowly but surely, one step at a time, I am learning to move ahead. Some days it is one step forward and two steps back, but slowly I move ahead. I know the process will be long and slow. I am sharing what I am learning and hoping someone out there will benefit from my experience.
- Feel the feelings. You don’t have to be strong every moment of every day. You also don’t have to share your weak moments if you don’t want to. I really do feel quite strongly that if you share the tough times, you are then obligated to share the victories. It is not fair to those around you if they only hear the whines.
- Learn to ask for and accept help. People really do want to help. I wish I had learned this lesson much earlier. I could have saved myself a lot of loneliness and heartache. I feel very loved and supported now that I finally get it.
- Do the hard stuff, but don’t only do the hard stuff. Crises usually mean there is something hard that we have to do to get through it. The plan that seems to work best for me, is do one hard thing every day. Do one household thing every day. You’ll feel better if the rest of your life is not falling apart. Do something for yourself; something that you just want to do every day. Go to lunch, read a book, take a nap. Even if you only have a few minutes, use them.
- Make a space for yourself, even if it’s a corner. You need a space where you can get away, everyone does.
- Ditch the guilt. You didn’t cause this, or even if you did, guilt serves no one. If you made mistakes, own them, fix what you can, and move on. There is not just one way to recover. Gather yourself together and do what works for you.
- Find comfort where you can. This will look different for different people. I love projects, so immersing myself in a project is therapeutic for me. Sometimes I prefer to read or watch a movie. But be careful. A glass of wine is fine, a bottle is not. TV and books are good, but not if it keeps you from moving ahead with the task at hand,
Comfort food (in limited amounts) feels really good right now. What’s your favorite comfort food? Mine is mac and cheese with LOTS of cheese! I’m not going to share a recipe here. There are far too many varieties. I will share the insta-pot yogurt I made this week.
Insta pot Yogurt
One 1/2 gallon of milk
2 Tablespoons of good quality yogurt with cultures
I poured the milk into the insta pot and set it on saute’ until it was steaming but not boiling. Cool the milk to 110 degrees. It will be warm, not hot. whisk in the two tablespoons of yogurt. Set on the yogurt setting. My pot times it for eight hours. For a nice thick yogurt, ten hours is better. There was almost no whey to strain off on this batch. The whey should be usable as part of the milk or water in baked goods.
This seems really simple, that’s how I like it.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Take care of yourself.
Until next time,
Helen
My Quiet Place 