Goofing Off is Good for the Soul Sometimes

This week, I moved child number two and I’ve realized a couple of things in the past few days.  One of them is that taking your second child to college is easier than the first.  The second thing is that I still wasn’t quite recovered from the trip across the country with my daughter.  That last realization hit me big time as I walked around Target late yesterday afternoon so that I could pick up all of the things that we didn’t bring with us.  I kind of hit a wall of I’m done with all of this moving of kids.

So, this morning when I showed up at the wrong spot for another orientation meeting, I took it as as sign that I wasn’t meant to attend it.  So, I turned around and drove back to my condo on the beach.  Then instead of being the responsible mom, I decided that it was time to play .  Since then, I’ve goofed off.  I’ve read a book, ate lunch and relaxed.

Now, as I write this, I’m sitting on my balcony and  listening to the ocean waves instead of attending yet another orientation meeting this afternoon.  It feels really good to slow my pace down.  I find that I can still productive but in a different way.  And, at the same time, I feel better as well.

With just that little bit of goofing off today, I’ve recovered a bit & have the energy to attend the last bit of the orientation.

This is something that I’ve been working on for a while now.  I always feel guilty when I don’t do all of the things.  I feel that I’m letting myself or someone else down.  In this case, I didn’t want to let my son down.

However, I could feel this morning that after a good night of sleep I was still really tired.  It’s all of the driving and moving of things that I’ve been doing in the past few weeks.  It’s just caught up to me.  Rather than exhaust myself even more, I made the choice to stop for a bit so that I could really be present this evening.  I didn’t want to skip anything but I also wasn’t going to absorb much information anyway because I just wasn’t going to have the attention span.

So, there was the acceptance of where I was in the moment & the choices that I had.  Stay and be miserable or leave and relax and feel better.  I’m happy with the choice that I made.  I’m glad that I could spend some time in the ocean and then write this blog post.  It all worked out better than I had expected.  All because I listened to my body and backed off when it said “Enough”.

This leads me to the other realization.  The one where my second child was easier to drop off than the first.  He actually didn’t need me at the orientation sessions anyway.  He went to them and got what he needed done.  He’s already been looking for his books today & getting other necessities done.  This second child is independent and doesn’t want me cramping his style.  So, it all worked out well.

I’m watching our relationship change as he exerts more and more independence and I’m happy to let him make a mistake or two as he learns how to navigate this new world of college.  After all, that’s how we learn.  By trying something and if it didn’t work, then trying something else.

So, listening to my body today, helped me to recover faster.  It also helped me to step back and let me son just be himself.  That’s a win-win as I see it!  Life is all about learning and I think some great learning happened today.

To begin to listen to the messages that your body is sending to you, schedule a session today.  Sessions can be done online and in person.  Start the learning process today.