Tattoos and Why You Matter

On Monday, I woke up at the crack of dawn, did my morning routine; meditation, journal, go to the gym. Things were moving along swimmingly.And then I returned home at 6:30AM.The sun wasn’t even up and the frenzy was beginning. It was a low buzz. You know. The kind that makes your stomach hurt a little. You start checking the clock, casually, in hopes that time might just actually move backwards for you this morning. “I have to take a shower, get ready, get kiddo dressed, fed and ready.” (For those of you that haven’t experienced life in toddler-time this can take hours. Literally. HOURS.)Then it really ramps up. Crap. I only have 20 minutes to do these things. Then the daily to-do list starts chattering in the background: contact the computer guy, balance the books, email…blasted emails. When do I eat?! I’m starting to get the hangries.At this point, I literally start running through the house like a possessed person. Throwing clothes around, looking for underwear, shoving my husband out of the way, yelling, “EXCUSE ME” in a foghorn-like monotone, as I push past him trying to get to the shower.At the moment I’m chalking it up to the lack of food talking.Luckily, the years of yoga, meditation, and coaching practice kick in, before I accidentally stab my husband with a toothbrush or break my face tripping over the piles of clothes I’ve ransacked.  Here's how it went:1. Stop. Take a breath.2. Check in with my body.3. I then use a Martha Beck coaching tool – Shackles on? or Shackles off?Does running around like a crazy person feel like shackles on? (Constrained, heavy, Not. Good.)Or does it feel more shackles off? (Freedom, lightness, aligned.)In this particular case. Shackles. On.4. What could I do to shift into feeling more “shackles off”? (More freedom, less freaking out.)I recently taught a workshop on feeling more “ahhhh” instead of more “eccchhh” in daily life. I passed out temporary tattoos to all the participants and asked them to put them on as reminders to stop and check in on a regular basis throughout the day. Building these habits takes time, practice, and consistency. It doesn’t mean that we’ll never feel stress or overwhelm, but we don’t give the stress and overwhelm power over us. And that comes with the simple act of awareness.When we aren’t aware and we act from this place of possessed overwhelm, we treat ourselves poorly, we treat our loved ones poorly (we want to stab them with a toothbrush), we’re snippy with our co-workers, our friends, the people at the grocery store.This is not why we are on the planet.We are amazing spirits. Here to share our gifts, our lives. We matter. Our level of self-awareness and self-care makes a tremendous impact on our life’s work and how we impact the people around us.At 7:30AM on Monday I went to my office drawer, pulled out my stash of temporary tattoos and tattooed myself with this same reminder I give my clients.Stop. Take a breath. Check in. Shackles on? Shackles off?Is this the way I want to make a difference today?This. Is our Real work.I'd love to hear what helps you stop and check in when the crazies are taking over.