Stressful "Stress-Free" Life

Hey, long time no blogging…again.

I’ve been so busy lately.  But it’s not really because I have a lot to do, per se.

My first problem is that I have this big old to-do list…some things are important, other things are just “why in the world do you want to do that” or “why is that on the list” type of things.  I’m chalking it up to “nesting”.  However, because of my outlandish, unrealistic, daily-to-do-lists, I feel like I need to start the day bright and early and keep super busy 99% of the time.

In order to help with pregnancy, and the impending delivery, most of the things on my “list” are things that I am trying to do routinely to keep my body and mind healthy.  Every day, I want to walk, do those pregnancy stretches (to help my poor hips), sit on the stability ball (to help my core and back muscles), listen to relaxing music, practice “Hypno-Therapy”, visual imagery and breathing techniques, read, knit, pray, clean, shower…

Tangent: Does anyone else find that showers are NOT relaxing when you’re pregnant?  They are becoming more and more like work the bigger I get.  It seems more of a chore to wash my hair and shave my legs.  By the time I’m done, I’m out of breath and irritated.  And let’s not even talk about toe nails.  What did they do in the olden days?  Did they just let them grow and cut them after the baby is born?

Anyway…back to my stressful, stress-free life.

I have to take a step back and remember that I wanted to incorporate all of those things to help me keep a state of calm and peace.  Recently, I’ve been stressing about fitting all those things in everyday.  I’ve fallen into the old perfectionism trap of trying to “relax perfectly”.  However, I don’t feel more relaxed, on the contrary, I feel very anxious.

There are legit things on my to-do list, like buy diapers, get a mattress for the cradle…you know, things that actually need to get done before the baby comes.  Checking those things off the list would ease my anxiety more than any of my “relaxing” techniques.

I’m not saying that relaxing isn’t important.  I am just realizing that it has to be, as with everything else, done in moderation and at the right time and place.  I think all my relaxation techniques will be very helpful in the long run – I just don’t have to do everything every single day.  That mentality feeds more into my OCD tendencies than a peaceful, stress-free mind.