I drove to Nashville
Today was day 2 of “lots of driving”. I left midwest Illinois and headed to Nashville. I slept terribly last night and woke up with a lot of pain in my neck. I did some stretching and a little bit of meditation, but my conclusion was I just wanted to get on the road since no amount of meditation would fix my tiredness issue. That said, I did find some great solutions today to my challenges. Read more below.
It rained. The whole time. I kind of knew to expect rain but I hadn’t really thought about how it would effect my mind and my body. The rain fell down hard and often times, visibility was really bad. It was stressful. However, I managed to celebrate uncertainty, as my dad & I say. Saying to myself, “Well, I guess this is the situation I am in. How shall I respond?” So I kept myself occupied sending videos back and forth with friends, listening to Conan O’Brien, sitting in silence, and also entertaining myself by looking at my surroundings like I’d never seen any of this before. Beginner’s mind. A cure for chronic negative thinking.
Body pain was significantly less. I learned from driving on Tuesday that when I’m stressed, I clench my shoulders and they start hurting. So I kept an eye on that for today’s driving and managed to avoid getting into really painful territories. Plus, I stretched a lot of the time I was driving, just to keep my muscles a bit fluid. I also put a pillow underneath my lower back which really helped overall. Very proud of my ability to learn and adapt, something that has been difficult for me pre-ADHD diagnosis and pre-Adderall.
When I arrived in Nashville, I used everything I had learned from days 1 and 2 and made my arrival better! Upon arriving, I chatted with my hosts for a while, but I definitely wanted to. Once I noticed my energy waning, I announced I’d be unpacking and getting settled in. I went into my room and did what I solved for in yesterday’s blog. I figured out where I was going to do my morning meditative routine (even asked my hosts where would be best to do it). And then I went through my belongings and got everything out and in intuitive places for me to use. Similar things in similar places. I felt very settled. Then I joined my hosts in the living room and did some stretching and yoga to soothe my body after another long day of driving. My hosts own a home right by a river in Tennessee and it is beyond beautiful. Expect pictures in my blog post tomorrow.
My hosts were going to go grocery shopping and asked if I needed anything. Do I? Yes, I need granola and almond milk for breakfast. But Brain didn’t want to have needs and “inconvenience” my hosts. But I pushed against that and said, yes, I would like some granola and almond milk. Brain felt especially shamed when I asked for almond milk. But I did it. And now I have breakfast for tomorrow.
Brain wants me to have more to share on this blog, but Brain also is not providing me with additional content, so I’m not going to keep writing just to meet some weird standard in my head. More to come.
