I was down in LA hanging out with my niece (and sister and brother-in-law) recently. She’s almost 2 and extremely cute.
My niece can also struggle with transitions. Any disruption to her schedule can throw off her mood and sleep. To help with upcoming changes, we start preparing her earlier in the day, telling her what will happen later and repeating many times to let it sink in.
We remind her things like “Dada is doing bedtime tonight” and “We can play for 5 more minutes and then we go home.” She might not like whatever is happening next, but at least it’s not a total shock. When she understands what is going on, she is better able to take it in stride.
We also learned the value of extra breathing room throughout the day. Anybody who has ever tried to hustle children out the door knows that it always takes longer than you think it will. Even after going back inside multiple times, sometimes we still forget their shoes.
I empathize with my niece. Even for adults, change is hard. Even good change is still disruptive. I wonder if we can apply this same approach not only to children but also to ease ourselves through transitions.
Our modern life moves in ways that our poor bodies are not built for. We can hop on a plane and time travel. We rush from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting while our bodies stay in one place. Everybody complains of being busy, but with what? This dissonance is so odd. No wonder our nervous systems are fried! No wonder we have a hard time feeling present.
So what if we slowed things down? What if we stopped overcommitting to plans, reminded ourselves of what’s next, and built in buffer time? What if, instead of hopping off a red-eye and going straight to work after vacation, we gave ourselves even half a day to decompress?
It doesn’t mean we have to like what’s coming next, but at least we can give ourselves more ease.
Take care,
Naomi
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Some recent delights:
I swung by some friends’ house for a quick hello and ended up staying for hours as they cooked me dinner <3
I took a weeklong roadtrip to Utah to do a LOT of running and hiking. Zion National Park is phenomenal! (See picture above)
Driving for 7 hours on Highway 50 across Nevada, known as the loneliest road in America. Something about the wide open road with mountains in the background and nobody else around…