A New Workstyle: Putting it all into practice

Fitting what I've learned into worklife.

It's coming! The moment of truth. In a few days my delicious 3 week holiday will end and I will go back to work. I'm using Ho'opono pono, and cleaning and clearing on the negative feelings I have around that thought as I type 😅, because yes it's a looming feeling. The trepidation of going back to work, of losing myself again, of going out of balance, the early mornings, the tiredness and overwhelm, the unforgiving structure, it's daunting and causes stress. 

I remember a girl I worked with many years ago. I was stressed and unhappy as is my pattern, while she labeled her work and life experience as the most nourishing and nurturing tine of her life. We had similar schedules and work expecations. Of course I had children, but I don't see that as a reason for my discontent. I want my work life experience to be like hers was. At that time, I was working at a different school. We didn't have the early mornings which I think helped a lot, but she was practicing tea ceremonies every morning. She made time for that healing and reflective space every day. This is what I need to do. Take elements of what I've learned and fit them into my days. 

Keywords for my self-care practice at work: regular, scheduled, prioritised, daily, habit, elevated emotions, meditation, affirmations, stretching, body awareness, calm, grounded, unreactiveness, breathe, unhurried, spiritual, sense of self, walking, stretching, lower core strengtheners

Mental Image: footprint in the sand that gets washed away by the ocean, by Ho'opono pono. It's soothing, relentless and calming. 

I have written up a bunch of prayers based on Ho'opono pono. I think Joe Vitale's work is a more practical choice for work because I have limited time and Joe Dispenza's work, although amazing and invaluable needs large uninterrupted chunks of time. His guided meditations on Youtube are between 43 and 52 minutes long, so I'm saving them for the weekends. Although I did do one thing using his idea of focusing on elevated emotions, which was to write a prayer for myself using "elevated emotion" words. I plan to use this daily. 

So for my morning routine, I've taken the work of these two men and I've created my own set of mantra/prayers/affirmations. I plan to audio record them using my phone and then in the morning I'll spend 10 minutes stretching, then 10 minutes sitting and listening to the recordings, like my own personal guided meditation. 

At work, I've realised that the lack of scheduled breaks, yes, I don't even have a lunch break (!) is one of the reasons that I've felt guilty about switching off and focusing on myself. What I do have, is periods where a subject teacher teaches my students, so I can use that block to do something for myself, so long as I am prepped. Since I've observed another homeroom teacher switch off the lights and straight up sleep at his desk during those blocks, I feel validated in using them for self-care. On another note, seeing that another person I know just got hired at another school, at a similar wage to me with a 1.5 hour lunch break where he can leave the school to do what he wants, I also feel validated. Validated to even work on my coaching business if I want to, but that's another story 😀 This one's about inserting enough self-care into my day in order to stay out of pain. 

So the irregular slots of time I have at work I'll use for whatever purposees I deem necessary, without feeling guilty or wrong, especially as health comes first!

Then there's my evening routine which will consist of foam rolling sore and tense muscles and fascia and affirmations. Weekends consist of pilates, yoga, longer Joe Dispenza-style meditations and lower core exercises. 

I've created a nice chart for myself. 

I think the desire to stay out of pain is my negative motivation to keep going with my plans. My positive motivation is to become the grounded, mature and thoughtful person that I know I can be. That I want others to see me as. This could signal the next step to my enlightenment, to my life vision. If I can carry this on through maybe this could be the level up I've been looking for. It's exciting! The Zero Point place of inspired expectations, has shown me that this challenge of going back to work, of creating a new workstyle, of facing a place containing all the negative beliefs and triggers, is worthy for these reasons.

The next 5 months will be the most nourishing and nurturing because of the changes in my perspective, attitudes and beliefs. Upheld by my daily practice. Here I go!