Inertia

Coming back to work after maternity leave in August of 2016 was one of the strangest experiences of my life. I had spent three months thinking only about eating, feeding a baby, and sleeping. My work as a life coach is incredibly mentally stimulating. To switch that part of my brain off for months was foreign to me, and to come back was like arriving on my home planet after living in another galaxy for eons.

My mind was (understandably) not as sharp. I had to take more notes than usual on my client calls. I had this desire to be back to my “usual self” and no energy to make it happen. An idea for a piece of writing would come to me, and then dissipate after three sentences typed. This is why I never finished writing my birth story, and instead told it recently on my podcast because I couldn’t stomach the idea of re-opening that half-baked google doc. (http://nwcopodcast.libsyn.com/episode-23-how-i-enjoyed-giving-birth)

“Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion. This includes changes to the object’s speed, direction, or state of rest.” -Wikipedia

It makes complete sense that it would take a while to get myself back after that period of time, not to mention the complete shift in my identity and day to day life. Looking back on it, I recognize that it’s simply a hyperbolic example of how inertia shows up in our lives.

*takes a left turn away from the maternity leave example into a day to day activity discussion*

We’re actually always engaging with our inertia. We’re always either pushing ourselves to go go go and never stop OR stop stop stop and never go. We’re also either furiously searching to find balance OR hopelessly sitting around wishing balance was possible for us.

I started a practice of waking up at the same time every day, no matter what. 5:45am is when my alarm is set, even on the weekends. When it rings, the first thing I do is text my friend Mark:

I notice that it’s helping me shift my mornings. I recognized that if I started the day like this, it would have me shift quickly from an object at rest to an object in motion. It would then be easier to STAY in motion. (because… inertia). Generally, I really love being an object at rest. I also love to judge myself for it. Judgement has its own inertia, come to think of it. That’s another topic for another day. Maybe tomorrow if I can keep up the inertia of writing every day this week ;)