Be Uncomfortable in the Middle - Part 2

Learning to love being uncomfortable has helped me so much with my lab.

She can sense when I'm frustrated.

And then things go south really fast with training.

It's the same with us.

When we have a major goal that's as far as the moon, we need to fall in love with training ourselves in the tiniest gradual steps.

Loving the process takes out the suffocating frustration for ourselves.

You learn to be comfortable not yet being there yet willing to build this small skill in front of you.

It's part of the bigger picture.

This morning at 5 am I was training Nala to walk besides me on the streets of Helsinki center.

Treats were involved and she was kind of getting it.

Or at least she was getting the treats, ha ha.

But tomorrow she'll be as clueless as now of the final goal of walking nicely next to me on an urban surrounding.

So my biggest work is with myself now, to love being really uncomfortable with the being in the middle.

And letting the process take as much time as it needs.

What is your tiny skill you're slowly learning?

P.S. ⛱️ The Midsummer highlight with Nala was sleeping in a tent for the first time. I mean, I slept, and she was on a guard duty listening to the sounds of the night and licking her paws 🐾 ⛺

Be uncomfortable in the middle - part one

Her name was basicly miss Chaos and lady Mayhem.

No one had convinced us that training a puppy was that hard.

Nala was as cute as she was a hazardously clueless labrador.

Yet, today I see the results of my relentless, gradual training of one and a half years.

She can sit and wait for her food for a good chunk of time, even without seeing me.

Her only time of the day when she drools from both sides of her mouth, ha.

She knows to look me in the eye to wait for the release.

Then when I release her, the food bowl is empty in almost seconds.

She can run back to us when we whistle a double whistle, and lie down when we tell her.

When we enter the house after being away, she quite fast calms down and lays down, like a good girl.

We're still figuring out how to help her remain calm, when her favorites appear; other dogs or people.

Then it's a full on party mode with speedy tail wags.

And not to mention walking next to us on the leash, usually she follows her nose like it was her boss. 

But Rome was not built in a day.

You know that frustration when your hard efforts show barely any change.

What training Nala has thought me, is how surrending to the process is a mindset. 

It's this willingness to be uncomfortable, when what you see in real life is so far away like east from west, from the result you see in your head.

Love,

Pia

>> To be continued in next week's blog. << ❤️

Make space for change, let go for growth

If you're a foodie like me, you know how good food makes everything just better.

But then if we talk about cravings, mine are through the roof right now, and I guess mostly always have been.

There are these emotional aspects behind and in the midst of these cravings.

The pastel colored fantasy land where all the little girls ride unicorns on lollipop paved roads.

That's probably where my mind goes when I let me cravings loose.

Yet when I eat without a dialogue between who I am, what my body needs and how the food actually feels, there's not much space for anything else than emptynes.

How does my body feel it when I pour in products full of tons of sugar versus fresh raspberries? 

This week, in the midst of excavation chaos in our home, I started trying something different.

And the back story is a week or weeks of food diary that didn't bring many happy feelings, as I am figuring out how to turn the ship from the sugar addiction type of cravings.

So a week ago I wrote a simple list. 

There were something fresh, something salty yet in very minor form, and things that after eating felt good in my body as well, not just in my mouth when eating.

I had a task for myself to accomplish and once I did it, I could go buy this special snack.

This late afternoon I enjoyed the tiny meal with my family and eating in company was half the fun.

If you're on a similar path than me, please share what has helped you?

Especially I would love to hear with what you’ve replaced other snacks for the night? 

I am learning to let go of the old habits, reminding who I am, and to make space for the new routines, that my body feels good about as well. 

What are you choosing to let go, to make space for a good, gentle change?

Love, Pia

Building strength habitually

The lifting would be so brutally heavy, so better grab tight, I thought and crunched the electric table to a lifting position.

One and half a year before I had been carrying the very same table into the new office space for hubby and I could still remember the pain from the heavy dead weight.

But to my astonishment the table went up so lightly.

What?! How is this possible, I gasped.

And my mind went immediately back these one and half years of lifting heavy weighty things on the yard, from the car to the house uphill or what even worse in the wheelbarrow up the hill.

My strength had grown and I hadn't even noticed at all until that moment today.

I bet there are things you felt were extremely heavy a few years back that you now deal with on a daily basis with a graceful touch.

Lifting those heavy weights, be they either mental or physical, the same way you’ve built such strength you can still be unaware.

Yet it's secretly there, working for your benefit.

You are a resilient, strong woman and your dedicated beautiful heart is spilling all over with every lifting you do.

Today I celebrate that secretly building strength, yours and mine.

You are stronger than you think and can do hard things through your beautiful passion.

Cheers to that!

Love,

Pia