Don’t Lock Yourself Out
The other day, a dear friend came to visit Mom and I at our home to pick up her weekly Kangen Water supply. Without giving it a second thought, we walked outside to greet her and jumped right into conversation paired with some sweet cooing from her sweet new baby.
A few moments later, I remembered I had something in the house for her. As I walked quickly back to the house and placed my hand on the keypad (we have one of those fancy keyless entry doors), it didn’t light up to greet me like it usually does. In fact, IT DID NOTHING.
If I’m honest, I was most worried about what my Mom was going to say because we had this random misfunction happen before and she had already expressed NUMEROUS times that we needed to get a key-entry lock for the door as well, JUST IN CASE. Upon which I would file the request in the back of my mind as one of those things we need to get to, but isn’t necessarily a priority.
Until Now, when for the first time we didn’t have our keys for the other doors or our cell phones on us. Cool.
I didn’t want Mom to panic and I didn’t want to cause my friend to worry, so I just casually came back and said the door isn’t letting me in, but it’s ALL GOOD, I’m sure it’s just the battery being funky and all will be ok. The look on my Mom’s face was a silent combo of “Oh F and I told you so”.
Our dear friend left with her sweet baby and jokingly said, “You all going to have a locksmith here tomorrow I bet” and we both laughed, because well, my Mom doesn’t mess around in getting things fixed.
One more thing…it was 6:30p and I had a Happy, Healthy Half Hour on FB Live featuring Michele Luck starting at 7:30p. Cool.
After some back and forth, and having realized neither of us never hid a key around the property, Mom had the brilliant idea of opening the garage door (thankfully her car was unlocked) and seeing if we can somehow get in through the door inside. We searched around the garage looking for something to pry the door open, first we tried a flat drill bit, which was met with strong resistance to the point where we were going to crack the frame. We searched around some more and found a hammer. My friends, I hammered the door knob off (which felt like a great release of stress being able to aggressively bang on something), and was met with the seemingly intricate locking system within. Mom grabbed a pair of garden shears, which I used like a pair of pliers, jimmying the mechanism until it unlocked.
All in all, it was about a 20-minute ordeal that felt REALLY distressing. I had never been locked out of my home before, and not having an immediate way to remedy that made me feel incredibly helpless.
After a few days, reflecting back on the situation, it hit my like a TON OF BRICKS. What happened with the lock is no different than what happens when we ignore the red flags that may pop up in our lives. You know, like when you’re physically and mentally exhausted, living on an IV drip of coffee to stay awake, powering through and feeling like absolute ASS.
When we ignore the red flags, there will always come a time where God/The Universe/Whatever your belief, will force you to slow down.
And it will always be at the worst possible time, when you have the MOST things to do, and you just have to lay there, rest, and recover while the To Do’s continue to rack up.
That is EXACTLY what happened with this lock situation, there were a NUMBER of red flags this thing was waving, and I just kept putting off addressing them until I was FORCED to address them in a really alarming way.
This tendency is a societal epidemic perpetuated by our “hustle-hard-you-are-only-worth-anything-if-you-work-harder-than-everyone-else-and-then-some” mentality, that our value is tied to what we accomplish, and that those things are more valuable if they are measurable and tangible. We’ve normalized such a high amount of STRESS and constant doing, that we are in almost constant DISTRESS trying to reach these goals that completely derail our ability to live a vibrant, healthy life.
We have to stop locking ourselves out.
I believe that we can be ridiculously successful in our lives, preventatively address the red flags as we see them, and live a life that feels deeply nourishing in all the ways. So, where do we start you ask?
Pay attention and get curious.
I know, I say, ::in my best Lindsey-impression voice::, “ooooh get curious” a lot, but this is where it starts. Begin to REALLY pay attention to what you are feeling, what your body is saying. What can be challenging, is that in our current go-go-go lifestyles, not only have we normalized a ton of stress, we’ve also probably normalized feeling like crap all the time. I can promise you, feeling like crap all the time (i.e. heartburn, exhaustion, not pooping, not sleeping, headaches, etc) is not normal, it is a RED FLAG your body is waving fervently. Take notice around this and I just want to DEEPLY encourage you to reach out to a trusted partner, friend, health care practitioner, coach (hint, hint) or ALL OF THE ABOVE immediately. Because, and speaking from multiple personal experiences in a variety of areas of my life, when we don’t pay attention to ourselves, we will always land in a place where significant action will need to be taken, whether it be days of rest, illness, surgery or even death (I know that’s morbid, but it’s true and I really want you to take what I’m putting down here because you’re WORTH IT as is all your dreams, aspirations and loved ones).
You aren’t alone if you’re struggling with this, I do too, more often than I’d like! I am intentionally working to change this and would love to hear your thoughts, where you are at, where you feel challenged and where you feel you’re succeeding. Hit me up with an email, or if Zoom is more your jam, book a time with me here. There is no reason to lock ourselves out when we have ALL the keys within us, it is just a matter of listening to that beautiful mind, body and soul of yours, and taking action to ensure that you are loving and caring for it more than anyone else ❤️
Lindsey is an encourager, optimist, health + life coach, and yoga teacher who helps caregivers live fuller, healthier, vibrant lives through exploring all aspects of their life and health while helping to cultivate simple, sustainable fun-size habits, so that they can continue to make a meaningful impact in themselves, their loved ones, and the world, for generations to come.
