Why I love my naturopath...and some other stuff

I went for a visit to my naturopath yesterday.  And walked away feeling great about myself, my summer choices and more than that, filled with hope and self-acceptance.  She listens.  Listens fully.  That is the single most important difference between her and my conventional medicine doctors.  She takes the time to listen, treats me like I'm intelligent and cares about all of me.  So in a nutshell, she agrees with me that whatever is going on in my body, it's not fibromyalgia.  Which relieves me.  She agrees that anti-depressants and sleeping pills are not a good solution for me (I can't emphasize for me enough....they are the right thing for some people).  She applauds my decision to give myself permission to sleep and do nothing in order to heal my body.  And agrees that running is not in the cards for me at this time.  My gut feeling is that yoga is what I really need, maybe a little walking and swimming, lots of sleep and time doing nothing are the best medicine.  She agrees with me.  We talked about how the forties are very freeing in many ways.  And letting go of guilt and living life, not always hurtling toward the next goal.  Eating beautiful food, lots of veggies and fruit, cutting out grains, drinking lots of water (and some wine....let's not kid ourselves) are all part of what is going to make me feel well.  It's amazing what those things and getting rid of stress will do for a body.  

I think it's important to emphasize that I'm not implying in any way that it's my job that causes me issues.  It's only one stressor out of many.  What's important is recognizing that in order to do the job I LOVE, I need to take care of myself and use my vacation to heal and rest.  My biggest stressor is me.  I make myself crazy.  My brain never flippin' turns off, and that causes stress.  So I'm trying to learn to turnout off.  And since realistically I can't totally change my personality and turn my mile a minute mind off, I need to practice working with it.  Not letting things turn me into a pretzel of stress and cortisol and crankiness.  I'm working on it.  It's a process.

Last night was a weird night.  I spent hours alone, just me, the cats, my dog and my daughter's boyfriend's dog.  We hung out, we cuddled, I read a bit and we watched a movie.  PS I Love You.  Normally romantic movies make my skin crawl, I much prefer sidesplitting inappropriate comedy or action type movies, but that one I love.  There's nothing quite as nice as snuggling in a warm bed with a cool breeze blowing in the window, pets all around, watching a movie that makes you cry.  Only a little bit.  It's a tear jerker, but so heart warming at the same time.  It makes me very grateful for what I have.

This week I'm looking forward to maybe more beach time, more reading, more movies and getting ready to head to Montreal next week.  I can't wait to go to Montreal, I haven't been in years, and it's just not like Toronto.  It's so.....French I guess.  Whatever it is, I love it and I'm excited to be going for a few days. When we return a couple of days at my parents trailer, more beach time and then a week at a cottage in Sauble Beach.  More beach time.  By then I should be good and ready to head back to work.

Isn't life grand?

DONE!

My 2 week whirlwind Principal's qualifications course ended yesterday!  Whew!  It truly was a whirlwind 2 weeks, class all day, homework all evening and again in the very early morning.  But I lived through it, met some fantastic people and am ready for an overdue vacation!

In that vein, instead of cleaning my disgusting house, I'm going to my parent's trailer for the weekend.  Lake Huron bliss.  And I'm not cleaning next week either--hubs has another week of holidays, and I'm spending it hanging out with him and the family.  He has held down the fort for the past 2 weeks  several months through thick and thin, it's time to give him something beyond the leftover bits of me.  The reality is that I couldn't be where I am professionally without his support.

I feel like I've been missing so much.  I read a few blogs this morning, cuddled with the dog, contemplated my piles of stuff sitting around my house and decided to completely ignore the mess and write a blog post instead.  I'm resetting my priorities :)  And with any luck my internal clock--4 a.m. is fine when you have homework to do, not so much when you are trying to relax and sleep in.  Baby steps....

Also so looking forward to time for exercise!  Still a little leery about running with my back, but I can walk and swim.  And do some careful yoga poses.  It's going to feel sooooooo good!  And time to prepare healthy meals--craving quinoa!

I'm also going to go to the Scandinave spa (a very generous gift from a student) and get totally relaxed, go get a pedicure and manicure and even maybe an eyebrow wax and haircut.  It's truly distressing to discover that you can't possibly pluck your own eyebrows anymore because blonde hairs + aging eyes = I can't see a damn thing in the mirror!  Until I'm driving in bright sunshine, and then I can see that some eyebrow grooming is long overdue--but that's another middle-aged story!

Did I mention no mores courses until next summer?  And then I've planning on doing the course in France!  Starting saving $$$ right away so I can afford that adventure.

Enjoy every last minute of this beautiful weekend.  :)  I'll see you at the beach!