Episode 9: The Mind: Your Most Powerful Tool

This was the title of a podcast I received from Weight Watchers last week.  I will get to it in just a moment.

The last two weeks I have felt so very peaceful and content.

• I took a week's vacation from work and did NOT check my email even once over the course of 10 days (that has never happened in the history of the school!).
•  I finished my Summer I class and submitted my article for rejection publication (not trying to be Debbie Downer, but it's my first article in my very first doctoral class to a publication that accepts less than 10% of submissions so it is not likely to be accepted and I am ok with that. Just glad I have my first article done!).  
• We went to the beach with my family for a few days. 
• I cut caffeine and booze completely from my system and have done well running (not so much with the yoga, but I will give it another shot next week).  With the beach trip Weight Watchers has been touch and go.  In fact with the way they have changed it, it may continue to be touch and go.  I am all for being conscious of what you eat and I SHOULD be all about clean eating these days (which the new system is all about), but I like sugar, carbs, and fat in moderation and there does not seem to be a place for these in the new plan:(.
• I focused on just the day or few days ahead of me.
• I continued with my bible studies and daily prayer.
• I used our cashback bonus money to redecorate our living room and dining room--yay shopping!

Then today I felt a giant knot in the back of my neck.  The kind of knot I used to get pretty often during the school year.  The kind of knot that was brought on by too much work, too little time, a lot of stress, and a lot of obsessing over how I wanted things to go (whether they were in my control or not).  It was like my happy little bubble of peace burst for no apparent reason--or was there?

Tuesday--from the above mentioned Weight Watchers Podcast no less--I was intrigued by the truth in the following statement:

"How you think determines how you feel and how you feel determines the choices you make."  

This statement popped into my head tonight and I realized that I was the cause for the burst bubble.  For some reason today, I lost sight of focusing on one day at a time and got my brain caught up in how I was going to keep myself busy in the days leading up to transfer.  Which then led my brain down the rabbit hole of the transfer itself and the various scenarios tied to whether it is successful or whether it is not.  Ideas and plans kept crowding my thoughts.  I think these thoughts, along with no exercise or time outdoors compounded into stress and anxiety for which I only had myself to blame.

I have got to recapture my thoughts.  If only one day of thinking run rampant causes me this much angst I can't let it go on a moment more.  It is time to focus on just one day at a time.  Weight Watchers I thank you-your new plan may suck, but I am least getting something out of it!