Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Five Positive Affirmations For Brides, Mothers, and Anyone In Between

Hello dear readers! I was reminded today of how important it is to be patient. My daughter, who is almost two, is not a good napper. That's an understatement really. If she could speak full sentences, she would say, "Dreaming is for the birds! My life is about doing!" She'd rather be running, jumping, playing - even doing taxes or watch a bug crawl around is better than sleeping to her. The irony is, she has all the time in the world to sleep, yet never wants to. However, I love naps and never have the time, so I relish her one short hour of rest and relaxation. So today when my little girl refused to nap (and I'm trying to teach her to nap on her "nap mat," not in the crib), I was incredibly impatient with her. She was sent to time-out three times, which was a stupid idea in hindsight considering all the time-outs in the world wouldn't help her fall asleep. My heart hurt at seeing her cry and eventually I laid on her mat with her and we fell asleep together, her head on my arm and my hand on her belly. And we both passed out and slept for one glorious hour.

Even though motherhood and weddings seem very different, both still require quite a bit of emotional skill, an ability which I am learning is highly underrated. It's so easy to get caught up in the moment and it's so hard to exercise restraint when you're frustrated or irritated. If you add tired to the mix, you start to actually sympathize with all those woman labeled as "bridezillas" over the years, understanding quite easily how quickly you can go off the deep end in certain circumstances. As a bride or wedding planner, you have to navigate the seas carefully, which are riddled with iceberg like obstacles, including but not limited to: financial stress, family fall outs, and bridal party feuds. As a gracious person, you have to hoist your sail high, keep your ship steady, and have all hands on deck.

Living up to the highest expectation of yourself is hard and in most cases, impossible. Instead, you have to focus on what is possible: being the best person you can be. I've been trying pretty hard the last few months to do this and ever since my experience with hypnobirthing (something I'll have to share another time), I've become a pretty big believer in affirmations. Below I've included a few of my own affirmations, which are kind of a conglomerate of different ones I've found around the web and made into my own. Print them out and read them before bed or when you wake up - it takes less than a minute to do so - and as long as you believe what you're reading, you'll notice a change.




1 comment:

Natalie {Bayside Bride} said...

Love the nautical references! This post is excellent!

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