stress, indiana jones, and braces

I’m not the type of person who goes to bed, does a blissful and picturesque wide-armed stretch, and then falls asleep with a smile on my face as I instantly drift off to a world of glitter-filled cupcake dreams. I wish I were, but I’m just not. I’m the other far less-picturesque type, the one that you don’t hear so much about. Who lays down in bed, sometimes in the yoga pants I woke up in, and then tosses and turns for an hour or two thinking about everything that didn’t get accomplished that day. Everything that is quickly getting backed up, and rolling into one huge mound I will soon be unable to out-run. It’s like Indiana Jones, except less boulder, more life stuff. It’s a huge soul-crushing ball of blog posts, editing, shooting, dog grooming, exercising, house cleaning, social schedules, and tv shows. (Yes, I even stress out about being behind on tv shows. I am just THAT crazy about schedules.)

I spend far too much time thinking about the things that didn’t get done, and less time celebrating the things that did. And I think over and over again about the things that should have been started, because if they had I would already be one step closer. “If I had started exercising last month, I’d already be a bit stronger”. “If I had submitted that wedding it may be published by now”. Constantly thinking about the things I should have done, but never actually doing them. I’ve learned that it’s far too easy to get caught in the perpetual cycle of “should-haves”, and the weight that comes along with those eventually adds up. It’s unfair to you, and it’s unfair to the people around you. Not to mention the stress it puts on your body. (It may even cause teeth grinding at night that makes you wear a mouth guard, which looks like it belongs on a football field.) Just sayin’, it’s NOT cute.

So, this month, we took one of our huge shoulda’s, and turned it into a did. For a long time both Ben and I have known we needed braces, but we were really good at coming up with millions of reasons why we weren’t going to get them. The money, the time, the food restrictions, the APPEARANCE. Who wants to be approaching 30 with a whole lot of metal in their mouth?! NO ONE. But, even though we had given all of these reasons, I obviously wasn’t convinced. I would still lay in bed nightly, allowing myself to add the stress about my teeth grinding to my ever-growing boulder of “life stuff”. And eventually, that boulder did get too big to out-run, and a change needed to be made. That’s when I decided I wasn’t going to try running from those things any more, I was going to turn around and face them head on. If something is important enough to stress about, than it’s important enough to do something about. And if you’re not willing to do anything about it, than it must not be important in the first place.

Last week, I sat in the orthodontist office after getting my molds done for Invisalign, and watching Ben get his braces put on. And as I sat there watching him, finally starting the process to make a change that’s bothered him for so long, I got a little teary. A little piece of our life boulder was just that much smaller, and it felt oh so good. We are doing things that are moving us toward the end goal, not just talking or stressing about them. And you know, even though it’s a little hard to chew and a bit hard to get used to, the feeling you get from being a “do-er” is worth every bit of it. Not to mention I think Ben looks pretty gosh-darn-adorable with braces : )

I hope that every one of you chips away at your life boulder just a bit today. If there’s something that you’ve been meaning to do for a long time, take the first step towards doing it. I promise you will be oh so glad you did.

Happy Tuesday everyone!