Hiya, barrebabes!
It's been a minute, but I hope this finds everyone well and getting into the rhythm of fall. Mr. Baby and I are enjoying the weather with lots of walks, stroller barre workouts in the park, and vegan ice cream cones. This week, we even made it to BodyRhythm Dance class on Friday - Diego loved wiggling along to the music so much, and it felt soooo good to get sweaty with Sarah and all the dancing babes, I think we'll be back! It's pretty to cool to hang out with a human to whom everything is new and apparently amusing.
Fall is a time of change, shifting gears, and setting habits. I write to you today in the spirit of focus, with a few words about habits, work, and happiness.
new habits thrive hard
Our lives are full of routines, rituals, and habits, even for the most spontaneous and wild among us, and making any kind of real change in our lives requires us to create and maintain new ones. Obviously, this is easier said than done. Here in these first few months of motherhood, I'm learning a lot about how crucial routines and habits are to keeping up the good vibes every day, and how much work it really is to introduce new ones and stick to them.
The big one for me right now is breastfeeding and pumping milk for bottles. Mr. Baby's gotta eat, and his appetite quite literally shapes my day. Lord knows the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is attach suction cups to my boobs and sit there like a dairy cow for 20 minutes, but keeping a few things in mind has helped me turn an annoying chore into a meaningful ritual and thus into a regular habit. Here's how:
- attach higher meaning to the action and prioritize accordingly. It's important to me to feed my baby breastmilk, which makes the chore of pumping actually pretty special. I want him to have an abundance of milk, and pumping helps increase the flow. My body's ability to sustain him is like, total magic, so the action of pumping is, too (kind of). Perhaps you want to change an eating habit, like eating less sugar and more vegetables. The higher meaning here could be improvements to your mood, mental state, and entire outlook on life, not "just" your skin or waistline, etc.
- make it special/create a reward. To make my twice daily pumping suck less (pun totally intended) I make sure that the action itself has something enticing attached to it. My little pumping zone is pleasant and comfy, and if it's morning, I bring my coffee with me, and at night, I used to have a cookie, then switched to a little wine, and now I'm just happy to drink water and sit quietly. Knowing that the pumping is literally buying myself sleep time is reward as well (Mr. Roddancerbod handles the 6am feeding, and it's nothing short of awesome every day! Basically, I bargained with myself until it became no longer necessary to do so, and now I no longer dread the chore. Same can go with food - reward yourself with something nice when you stick to your new, desired habit, like dabbing on your favorite essential oil, or buying yourself flowers, or fancy seltzers or whatever.
-get grateful. This was really the biggest one for me. Realizing how rad it is that I can make milk for my baby, and what a privilege it is to have a breast pump, and a partner to feed the baby a bottle all went a long way in changing my perspective about what I'm actually doing. Turning the action mentally into a privilege rather than a burden made it feel like "good work if you can get it" - something I want to do, not something I have to do. Same goes for food or workouts or flossing or whatever - feeling grateful we have the choices, the resources, the privilege to benefit from our efforts is key to making the desired change.
Anyway, babes, keep pulsing, keep in touch, and I'll see you at the barre!
All the best,
Annie
