The change:  to get more sleep

Most everyone that is reading this is or has been a mother of young children at one point in their lives.  You know what it means to be sleep deprived. I don’t think I have to say anymore about how it feels to not get enough sleep.  I wrote a fun post about some sleep facts that you can read here.

why make the change:

I think we all know how important health wise it is to get sleep.  But did you  know that based on your sleep it will affect your motivation to want to change your habits in life?  Lack of sleep will affect whether you successful make those changes.

Think about weight loss.  If you are motivated to lose weight, you might dive into it full force and do great for a little while.  Then over time, kids wake up a lot during the night and your sleep level goes down.  The next few days while you are trying to catch up on sleep, you are more tired.  When you are more tired you don’t want to exercise.  It is much easier to just grab some comforting food instead of taking the time to make a healthy low fat meal.  You use the excuse, “well I will start again next week.”  Then the cycle goes around and around.  Your weight loss comes to a halt.

The same is true for de-cluttering your home.  You might start de-cluttering and weeding out part of your home then you stay up late some nights and aren’t able to catch up on sleep.  So that great big project you started of “organizing and de-cluttering” your home starts becoming this monstrous thing you took upon your self.  You start looking at your project as too overwhelming, because you are tired, and just give up on it and go lay and watch TV.  You want to comfort your feelings of feeling crappy and tired so you just give up on your de-cluttering.  Sounded too good to be true anyways.  Your strong feelings of being motivated and wanting to de-clutter your home have taken a back seat.  Time for tiredness to take over.

How to make the change:

• Go to bed earlier.  If you are tired and not getting enough sleep, quit staying up late.  Go to bed, in a few days when your body  has adjusted you will be able to go to sleep a little bit later.  But for now—go to bed.
• Some of you like to wake up early and get your day started—but if you were up late into the night with a child or just couldn’t sleep, then sleep in.  Don’t make this a regular thing but for those occasions when you could not avoid being woken up during the night then use it.
• Have a bedtime routine.  For myself I like to brush my teeth, get a drink, and shut down my computer, tvs, and phone.  Then I like to lay in complete silence and have a time with the Lord.
• Do not go to bed watching TV or surfing the internet, it will only keep you awake longer at night.
• If I am having a hard time falling asleep, I think about my day and go over what I did, I like to take this time to think about what happened or what I could have changed.  Maybe pray for our children–we have many children by the time I get through them all I almost always am tired and will fall asleep:)

If you are having problems wanting to start any of these lifestyle challenges, look at your sleep habits and evaluate whether you are getting enough or not.  That may be the factor.

 

The change: choosing to smile and laugh more.

After a night with no sleep and cranky children I was feeling a little “worn” today. I was sitting with my children having oatmeal for breakfast, and we were talking about our tasks for the day. Sighs and groans started to proceed out of their mouths. I wanted to stop and discipline them for being so cranky, then I had to remind myself that they learn from their Momma whom they see each and every day.  I was reminded of the verse:

Rejoice evermore

This is something that has been one thing I wish I would have done more of in my life.  Especially when life was filled with a constant circle of nursing, changing diapers, feeding toddlers, no sleep, etc.  Life was  busy, well life is always busy no matter what you do, but at that time I was just in survival mode.  Most of it was a big blur.  Looking back my children probably saw more of mommy being tired and worn and probably a little bit cranky.  That is something I need to change.

Why make the change:

Have you checked yourself in the mirror lately?  What kind of feeling are people getting from you when they see you?  Are you bringing a sense of positiveness to peoples life by your smile?  Or are you bringing more tense,stressful things to the room?  Are people always wondering what type of “mood” you will be in next?  Or are they excited to be around you?

A smile or a laugh is contagious.  Being around people that are smiling and laughing will bring healing and happiness to your life.  It will lower stress levels, it will turn a bad day into good.  It will help change your mindset on things.

Smiles can:

• break down the cold walls of indifference
• warm a lonely heart
• influence choices of people
• brighten your mood
• improve your outlook
• help you to make positive choices in life
• give a person who is suffering, hope
• show you have a great attitude–even in mistakes and failures find the humor

When we go out I try and teach my children to always smile at people.  I tell them that your little smile might just change the way a persons day goes.  That person might be going through a rough patch in their life and seeing you smile or laugh might just touch their heart.  Even give the lost a glimmer of hope in life.

 My hope for them now is to see me smile more.  Now that life is a little more manageable, I feel like I have a second to breathe and think about things more.  It is times like this that I sit and be silly with them.  I smile and kiss my babies more.  I want them to remember Momma as a hard working woman who smiled when she went about her daily duties.

I want them to remember my smile.

How to make the change:

 

Smiles don’t just happen.  You can’t just set it on your face and keep it there without thinking about it.  You need to consciously think to smile.  When things start to go bad, put on that smile.  Force yourself to “fake it till you make it”   By putting a smile on and laughing at your mistakes and failures will enable you to let go of the stress of dealing with things.  It will help you to put a positive spin on the situation.  Over time you will learn to just naturally smile and laugh all the time.

When you are with people around you that are not smiling be the first one.  Don’t wait for someone else to initiate the smile, go for it.  Show them that your smile means that you will give them the attention they deserve.  It also helps bolster open body language, and reassures the other person of your sincerity. They will be more likely to open up to things when they see that you generally care and are interested.

Your smile is the greatest gift of all.

Are you up for the challenge to smile and laugh more??