A couple of months ago, I bought groceries in the middle of my niece’s birthday party.  We were celebrating first at the local paint-your-own pottery studio and then at my parent’s house, so I took the opportunity to make a mad dash to the store between those two events.

Of course, I was late to the second half of the party.  I also forgot to bring the eggs in from the car.

Why was I shoving the grocery shopping into my schedule in this manner?  I’d scheduled the rest of the week so full that there simply hadn’t been any other time to go.  We were out of food.

The real question is: Why was my schedule so full that I couldn’t even get groceries?

This is the kind of questioning we must do to change patterns in our lives.  It’s clear that being completely overbooked doesn’t help my health, and when I am that busy, I am not taking care of my mental, emotional, and physical self.  Yet, nothing is going to change without that magic question:

Why?

I like to ask it this way:  “Why am I doing this to myself?”

It makes me take gentle responsibility (we’re not trying to add self-pressure here, just become aware) for what’s going on in my life.

Usually, I am doing this to myself because of some belief or thought pattern of which I am unaware or avoiding.  It’s truly astonishing the myriad of ways we avoid ourselves.  Why do we do this?  Well, speaking for myself, because it’s damn hard to be authentic.

But it is oh, so worth it.

We often think that if we are authentic, we will upset the apple cart.  Someone will get mad at us.  Someone will be unhappy.  Someone will…whatever.  Fill in the blank.  This is why it’s difficult to be authentic – because our minds are so tricky.  They take us down the garden path and we end up not going where we want to go: to joy, health, and contentment.

Thank goodness we have that internal GPS system to tell us when we’re off route.  Our emotions let us know.  Thankfully, they don’t speak in that annoying monotone GPS-lady voice: “Off route.  Recalculating.”  They just let us know via bodily sensation we’re thinking something that isn’t serving us.

So, what isn’t working in your life right now?  Are you overbooking yourself, like I was?  Are you putting too much pressure on yourself in an area of your life?  Are you forcing perfection from yourself?  Put aside the health issue, the weight issue, or whatever seems to be the problem.  It’s not.  The problem wasn’t that I was overbooking myself.  The problem was that I was thinking I had to say yes to everything.

Ask the question: “Why am I doing this to myself?”  Then, write down the thoughts.  Notice them.  Go back and read last week’s post.  This is where you make serious change happen – within your mind.  Then, health simply has to follow.