This week, as I continue my series on Optimizing your Vitality During the Storms of Life, I want to discuss how to be consistent without being perfect!! 

It seems that when life gets chaotic, turbulence hits, or you have a huge storm raging around you (or your loved ones) that it’s hard to keep up, to stay on top of anything, not to mention self-care. Right? I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve had periods of time when it seems that EVERYONE’s needs came before mine. Unfortunately, like compound interest, this added up and left me with severe chronic fatigue that I battled for years! Now that I’ve regained my vitality, my passion is to support you to optimize your vitality, even IF you’re in the storm.

Preparation is key to success

Certainly, like any physical storm, it helps to prepare. I remember as a kid doing earthquake drills. Did you have fire drills or tornado drills? Perhaps you and your family have emergency preparedness kits for natural disasters. That’s awesome!! Now, how can we apply that to our self-care?

In the past two weeks, I have written about supportive morning and evening rituals. My goodness, are they supporting me now through some really rough times. However, I’m not so sure that I could maintain all my self-care rituals now if I had NOT created the habits 18 months ago. Additionally, the great distinctions of FLOORS & CEILINGS have been magical in supporting my new habits and helped me maintain my habits consistently, without perfection.

First, let’s look at Ceilings – Ceilings are the very best version of your goal. It’s the version that you can do occasionally when things are flowing just right.  A ceiling can be raised once you master your new habit at one level if you want to take it up to a new level of mastery.

Reflecting on the last two blog posts about evening and morning rituals, an example might be 30 minutes of meditation in the a.m. and p.m. For many of us, we can have that goal, yet when we cannot keep it up, we seem to abandon the goal all together! I know that is how some of my New Year resolutions have gone in the past. Have you abandoned yours, too, unable to keep up the resolve perfectly?

FLOORS to the rescue!! Floors are the Rock Bottom foundation, the 1-minute version of your goal that you can do even IF you’re super busy. A FLOOR is your bare minimum or the short version of your goal. Even IF life is hectic. Even IF you’re in the middle of a Cat 5 storm. I know… I tested it this summer. And I’ve been consistent with all my self-care rituals because I’ve had floors to sustain me.

An example of a Floors from the lists I have shared looks like

• 1 minute of deep belly breathing through my nose
• 1 minute of using the water pic
• Walking around the yard with my doggie vs. a long walk (Mind you, we’re both happier if we get our walk)
• Jumping on the trampoline for 1 minute to stimulate lymph flow
• Reading one scripture vs. a whole chapter
• Having a green drink using my organic powder mix vs. making a raw Kale Keto smoothie
• Three simple bullet points in my gratitude journal. That usually takes less than 30 seconds.

Do you get the picture?
What are some of the floors that you can create?

How can you simplify yet still honor your self-care & be consistent with your evening and morning rituals?

I’ve had some clients tell me that even a FLOOR seemed too much. Well, what if you started with baby steps? If you want to increase your movement, perhaps you can put on your shoes and walk around the house. Perhaps it may be just 3 cat/cows.

The Magic of Pennies or Small and Simple Things

You may be wondering how a 1-minute FLOOR version of anything can really make a difference. Yet, in scripture, we read that “out of small and simple things proceedeth that which is great.” I think a FLOOR is similar to pennies. We often walk by a penny and don’t bother bending down to pick one up – right?

If I offered a teenager 1 penny and double it daily for 30 days versus 3 million dollars today, which would they opt for? The three million dollars! As we age and get wiser, we understand the power of compound interest. A penny a day, doubled every day for 30 days, equals $10,737,418.24. FLOORS are like Pennies – Compounded over time; they count – big time!! 

The small and simple act of meditating for 1 minute each a.m. and p.m. is far better than 1 hour of meditation on the weekend. The small, simple act of moving your body for 10-15 seconds a couple of times an hour may be more supportive than a 30-minute hard workout. (I’ve seen this reflected in my Heart Rate Variability scores. More on that later) The small, simple act of doing any one of your self-care routines will add up!

In summary, creating healthy, supportive habits that will Optimize Your Vitality takes practice. It takes repeated daily effort for the habit to form. When we create a FLOOR and CEILING for each goal or new habit, we set ourselves up for success.
My recommendation is to start now. Create those habits that will sustain you, even WHEN life’s challenges hit.

You’re worth the effort! You’re worth the time investment. The Return on Investment is far greater than you can imagine.

Here’s to Optimizing YOUR Vitality!