How the day after Thanksgiving made me stop and think

Around a decade ago, I first heard of Black Friday after reading about Buy Nothing Day. Being  Canadian, the Black Friday habit has not been ingrained in our family  since childhood and this is something I am really thankful for. I received a few Black Friday emails from some of the businesses I am following. My husband took advantage of the ‘’B’’ day, went online and bought something he really needed. Other than that, we just stayed home and had fun working on our backyard projects.

To me, Black Friday just spoiled all the good intention of celebrating Thanksgiving the day before, thanking the Earth for the bounty she offers us daily and then taking back our words with our behavior by spilling the planet to buy things we probably don’t need anyway.

The Thanksgiving weekend is about being grateful and spending time with loved ones. In our society we tend to be busy all the time. Those rare moments around holiday should not be felt as an extra pressure but rather a time to decompress and doing what matter most with whom we care about, not being stressed out!

That is why I strongly believe that we should also create a ‘’do nothing day’’: not only once a year but once a week. Remember what that Sunday was for?

These thoughts came to my mind as I just got a glimpse of ‘’doing too much in so little time’’, again, in the last few weeks. After being on a ten months journey with my yoga teacher training, I needed a time to step back. I wanted to reflect on how I wanted to serve other people with that new knowledge and work on building the business to be ready for the beginning of the new year. Instead, I jumped right in that other business project, after being offered a goal to achieve before 2012 ends. At my age, I should know better that I need transition time (we all do by the way, we just tend to forget about it!) to acknowledge what was, live the present moment and foreseeing what lies ahead.  I should have set my limits because when I do not, I work too many hours, go to bed well pass my bed time and get sick. Then, I don't have energy to pursue anything and I don't feel like I am walking the talk- working in the holistic health industry- if I cannot take care of myself.

Whatever happens in life, I find helpful to sit and reflect on why am I doing what I do? My personal ''why'' is about financial freedom so I can spend time on our homestead, be with my family, guide people to take responsibility for their and Mother Nature’s health. If I don't keep that in mind, I get out of balance really quickly because it does not resonate with who I am. I am old enough, hopefully wise enough as well, to know what I want from life and what I don't need. Unnecessary stress is something I need to get away from, this I know. I went out of balance many times before in my life and it might not be the last. Sometimes I have learned this the hard way. With these experiences in my toolbox now, I can rapidly detect when I am heading in the wrong direction. I knew it was too big of a leap for me, considering my need to transition and the importance I put on sharing time with my family. I am thankful for being reminded gently (and thanks to you Wendy for the serendipity) that stepping back give us the ability to jump further and run faster, if that is what I want.

How does that work for you? How do you recognize when you are out of balance? Do you need time to transition between milestones? How do you do it?