Happiest of New Years to you! I have such a good feeling about this year and I know a lot of you do too. Perhaps it’s the ever-optimist in me but I just have a different feeling about 2022!
I chose to end 2021 with a bang so, on December 29th, I had surgery on my left knee — an ACL reconstruction and a medial meniscus repair. Yes, both were torn! How? Well, that’s the thing… I’m not quite sure. There have been numerous times where I thought I sprained or strained my knee over the last 20 years but apparently I did more damage and just kept chugging along. Only when I sprained my right ankle last summer and started shifting my weight over to my left side did that knee start becoming unbearably painful. In hindsight, the loud POP that happened on occasion and my knee giving way while working out or playing golf should have been a big red flag. But as a mom, I am guilty of not hitting pause to go to the doctor to have things checked out.
Two weeks later, I am doing pretty darn good — better than I thought I would be at this point. Thanks to a little help from my friends Julie and Ish (Body Solutions in Naples) and Mike (Movement Chiropractic in Signal Hill), I am moving aggressively through physical therapy and rehabilitation. I will tell you though… it has forced me to sloooooow down, literally and figuratively. A walk down the street seems to take forever, going up the stairs at a snail’s pace, taking a shower and getting dressed require double the amount of time it typically takes.
But hey, I have completely embraced it. I’m trying to learn something new. To quiet the noise… and there is certainly A LOT of it. Driving in the car with nothing on, no podcast, no music, no audiobook. Just me in my thoughts. I started meditating on Christmas Day using the CALM app. I do a 7-10 minute session first thing in the morning before anything else and another 10-30 minute session at night just before I drift off to sleep. Most of the time, thoughts drift and wander into my mind but I do my best to focus on my breath and not those thoughts. Just like with anything else, it will take time and practice to be able to truly clear my mind. But I have found out very quickly that I much rather slow things down like this than lay there with my head spiraling with worry or stress. It has definitely helped me to feel more calm and less anxious than I usually do in the morning when it’s all go, go, GO!
One other small change… my friend Barry and I were looking at our screen time but then I pointed out the “pick up” monitoring feature. That’s how many times you pick your phone up in one day. So that particular day I was at 95 pickups, but my average is typically over 200 times a day! That’s ridiculous. Easy fix though, I’m just going to pick up my phone fewer times each day. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve reduced my daily average to 87 pickups so there’s more progress that I can make there!
My little sidekicks and I are off to Paso Robles this weekend. I am craving an adventure with them so booked it this morning and we’re going to hit the road! If you haven’t been to Paso Robles, please add it to your list of destinations. It’s a little slice of Heaven in California with its small-town feel, friendly people, and beautiful rolling hills and greenery. We don’t have a plan but I know it will be amazing. They may even allow me to stop at a laundromat or two along the way. Haha!
Just a quick little request from my fellow small business owners: please take a moment to leave a Yelp or Google review when you stop into a place. Believe it or not, these reviews really do have a positive impact on our businesses. They help move us up the rankings when people do an Internet search or are looking on their Maps app for something close by. Photos in these reviews are the icing on the cake!
Thank you so much for reading. Have a fantastic weekend!!
