How I’m Beating the Back to School Blues

I don’t know if it’s the hustle and bustle and general chaos of back to school, the changing of the seasons, the shorter days or the loss of some super flexible routines and sleep in days (umm and no lunch packing needed)… But every year with the back to school grind I find myself struggling for a couple of weeks feeling downright blue…and in a huge funk…

I used to keep it to myself… I actually thought it was some anomaly that only I felt. And it seemed kind of selfish to talk about it when I saw my friends who are teachers heading back to work after the summer off while I still got to work from home and have some flexibility in my day.

But as it was eating away at me day after day, I decided to mention it to my good friend Gillian (who ironically is a high school English teacher) and she told me she felt the same flood of emotions and struggles. She felt like she was barely keeping her head above water!

And then I mentioned it to the ladies in the virtual fit club I run and I was shocked to see one after the other comment on what a hard time they were also having with the transition period. Some of them back to the class room and understandably stressed, but others who were stay at home moms, nurses, and even other work from home moms.

Everyone seemed to be feeling in a funk of some sorts.

It seems I wasn’t alone.

And talking about it helped…A LOT…

Taking a minute to say, “man, am I struggling. Some days, even to just get out of bed.” And hearing other busy women say the same gave me some encouragement and then motivated me to do a little research and see what I could do to help end the funk faster than normal …Because let’s face it, the weather (at least in Canada) isn’t going to get any easier and the days getting shorter and more grey aren’t going to help either.

So I picked up a few of personal development books and started listening to podcasts any chance I got to get to the bottom of this.I started with one of my long time favourites ” The Five Second Rule” by Mel Robbins.

If you find it hard to squeeze in book time even just listening to her Ted Talk could do the trick. I’ll link it here for anyone who hasn’t listened before.

Basically this is a process of how to get moving in action and how to get out of our heads and start DOING again.

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned when I’m feeling stuck, or anxious, or even overwhelmed is that doing SOMETHING is the first step to getting ‘unstuck’, and it really doesn’t even matter where you start or what you start with or how you do it.

So my first action step was to get myself out of bed earlier and stop pressing snooze on that alarm I set each night with hopes that the next day would magically be the day I woke up feeling like myself again. I knew that if I could get back into a morning routine and squeeze in a little ‘me’ time I would be better for it.

The first day was tough. I used Mel’s 5-4-3-2-1 technique and then I had to repeat it because my body didn’t get the message the first time lol but I managed to roll out of my comfy bed and make my way down the hall to my office.

I grabbed my Five Minute Journal and used the prompts to help me write out some things I was grateful for before the day even started (that’s another tip if you’re feeling in a funk start with gratitude). It’s really hard to feel a lot of negative emotions when you’re concentrating on even the smallest things you have to feel grateful for !I then read a list of affirmations I created for myself (and if you’re thinking this sounds hokey, I totally did too, but now I swear by them) because our mind believes what we tell it and it’s up to us to tell it the things it NEEDS to hear.After that I sat down with the book I had chosen to read that month, Emily Ley’s

Grace not Perfection” and I read 10 pages of it (which is shockingly easy to do if you love what you’re reading and there’s no kids around peppering you with questions ).Just as I was finishing up, our youngest, who is an extreme early bird, woke up and came in to crawl on my lap and start sharing stories about Minecraft and Pokemon.I set him up with his breakfast, guzzled down the all natural preworkout I so lovingly call “mommy go go juice” and got in a quick 27 minute workout in my basement. Back upstairs in time to hear more stories about Minecraft and get lunches packed and all the other pre school activities done.

I grabbed my Five Minute Journal and used the prompts to help me write out some things I was grateful for before the day even started (that’s another tip if you’re feeling in a funk start with gratitude). It’s really hard to feel a lot of negative emotions when you’re concentrating on even the smallest things you have to feel grateful for !

I then read a list of affirmations I created for myself (and if you’re thinking this sounds hokey, I totally did too, but now I swear by them) because our mind believes what we tell it and it’s up to us to tell it the things it NEEDS to hear.

After that I sat down with the book I had chosen to read that month, Emily Ley’s “Grace not Perfection” and I read 10 pages of it (which is shockingly easy to do if you love what you’re reading and there’s no kids around peppering you with questions ).Just as I was finishing up, our youngest, who is an extreme early bird, woke up and came in to crawl on my lap and start sharing stories about Minecraft and Pokemon.I set him up with his breakfast, guzzled down the all natural preworkout I so lovingly call “mommy go go juice” and got in a quick 27 minute workout in my basement. Back upstairs in time to hear more stories about Minecraft and get lunches packed and all the other pre school activities done.

40 minutes.

That’s how long what I did took, including my workout. It was my miracle morning.

For one, it was a miracle I had finally got out of bed and didn’t feel so blue and lost; and two, it’s actually based on the routine Hal Elrod came up with in his book “ The Miracle Morning” <– another amazing book, by the way that I highly recommend if you are struggling with mornings and starting your day off on the right foot (especially those of us who just aren’t morning people)!

I felt like 40 minutes had unlocked my day.

So I did again the next day.

Did I fly out of bed a brand new woman?

Well no, I dragged myself out of bed still, but with a lot more hope and a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish and where I wanted to go. And dare I say, a bit of excitement instead of dread?

I don’t expect each morning to go perfect or as seamlessly as the first, but at least now I have a blueprint for how I want to run my day and I can stop letting my day run ME into the ground.

What do you think?

Could a change to your morning routine make a difference in your day? Do you think in a time of transition having some guidelines for how you start off your day can help break you out of a funk?

The only way you’ll find out is by giving it a try… let me know if you do how it goes… because ‘ain’t nobody got time for mama to be in a funk all Fall, am I right?’!

xo Lindsay