My word for 2021 is shift. Like everyone I know, I’ve learned a lot, since this time last year. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that change and uncertainty just are. Since I’m not in control of much more than which yoga pants, Zoom-appropriate top, and slippers I’ll wear each day, I needed to figure out how I could deal with all the change and uncertainty. That’s where shifting comes in.
For me, shifts involve acceptance and adjustment. I know I don’t have much control, but I have unlimited choices. I can shift.
Some of my recent shifts have been pretty significant. Some have been tiny. Some haven’t happened, yet. And I’m sure I’ll make a lot of shifts I can’t even imagine.
One of my fairly significant shifts was made a few months ago. I’d hit the wall with ALL-OF-IT. I was sad and felt worry for the first time in my life. I knew I had to do something differently. I had to shift.
As I was eating, dinner in front of my TV, I realized that’s where I’d eaten almost every meal, since the early days of the Stay at Home orders. That was not how I used to eat my meals. I love to cook. I love to eat. And I love to appreciate meals, while I’m enjoying them. That’s where and when that shift happened. I turned off the TV and relocated my meal to one of the indoor places I enjoyed my pre-COVID meals.
Rainbows, butterflies, and unicorns didn’t appear, but my mood and spirit lifted. I felt that shift. I still get discouraged, frustrated, sad, and angry. And I know the restorative power of making a shift in my life.
What/ if any kind of shifts have you made lately?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
I am attempting to shift into a more active mode. I began (very cautiously) to walk for exercise again last summer. I mean 250 steps at a time. Now I can walk about a mile. Now, instead of just one all-at-once walk, I am working to ADD to that by seeing movement around the house and yard as an opportunity to do “work” and move at the same time. Pick up a little, mop a little, rAke a few leaves and smell the damp earth underneath, tidy a corner and discover a space – my territory had become so small. A shift to movement has enlarged my world without travel – just by moving Round in my own space.
I’m shifting to be BETTER! BFFS, “when your sad and feeling weary”, I am the friend that can be found. We are always each other’s bridge over troubled waters. And by the way, what time is dinner? You cook, I wash!
I watched several robins splashing away in a sidewalk puddle out my front window a day or so ago .We are held back in many ways yet there are so many little things that make us smile . Shift to looking for them , finding,using ,and smiling .
Wow, Penny! Your description of how your shift in movement and activity has expanded your space is glorious and inspiring. Thank you!
LOL, Linda! Can’t imagine you being better at anything, since you’re already so good. I guess we can always try though. Yay you, yay us, and yay to our decades long connection!
I love this, Anne! Thanks for the encouragement to literally and metaphorically allow a robin shift my focus.