Wrapping Up a Year of Simplicity

I'm wrapping up the year where my focus word was simple.  I believe simple will always be my goal, and this year's focus offered profound results.  I discovered hygge.  I discovered minimalism.  I chose to cut down on emotional clutter and to choose the most important things and let the others go.  It's been liberating and challenging.

As I finish the last couple of weeks of the year with this focus, I'm trying to make sure I accomplish three things daily: worship, movement, and writing.  Of course, I will parent and read books, have coffee with friends and Netflix dates with D.  I am focusing on the three because they are things I want to do daily that I don't always, even though they are important to me. 

I write daily, but I'm still lagging when it comes to fiction output.  I love to exercise, but that still somehow falls to the bottom of the list on crazy days.  I pray and seek God, but it's sometimes done in a hurried way that doesn't allow room for thoughtful, still meditation.

I'm also giving myself until the end of the year to try to set and keep a bedtime.  If I fail yet again, I am giving up and accepting the way I'm wired.

I did a ton of research on sleep, and it scared the hell out of me because I haven't slept like a normal person in over 8 years.  If the studies are correct, I should have died from all the negative effects on my body six months ago.

I don't want my adrenal glands to crash on me again.  I like sunrises and would love to see more.  I love the feeling of getting eight solid hours of sleep.

However, none of this has been enough to motivate me to have a nightly get-ready-for-bed routine that I actually stick to.  I think, for better or worse, I may just be a night person who still has to suffer through early mornings because my kids demand it. It sometimes physically hurts, but I don't know how to fix this problem.  One more try, then I'm just going to surrender to my body falling apart from being tired.  I don't know what else to do.  I'm pretty sure worrying about it all the time is killing me slowly anyway.

I will likely write more on simplicity. I didn't even get to how it affected food, friendships, or fashion. There's nothing in my life a simplicity approach didn't touch.

So, onward to exercise and bedtimes, meditation and creating fictional characters.  It's not easy, but it's simple.