The One With Chocolate and Chriopractors

The title of my blogs are purely dedicated to one of my best friend, Kerri. We love the TV Show Friends and love how each episode is titled with such funny humor. I have decided that I will do the same for my entries. My friends have always said my life unfolds like a book and Stacie, my roommate, from college always says, "when you write your book..." or "when you are a famous speaker..." Which has always inspired me, but who knows if I will ever do either of those things. But this I do know--my life is full of hilarious stories that seem unbelievable sometimes. But since they happen to me I know they are true. I live in Los Angeles and wish for the sake of some of the funny things I have encountered I would have started writing my stories down sooner, but today is the day I start. Plus, I am leaving for New Zealand in 3 months and I want to be able to record my journey while I am there.

But I realized last week that my journey to NZ not only started, but has much less to do with getting to NZ, and much more to do with something unseen that I won't know until I start experience and realizing the journey is happening right now. I am not sure what this next season of life holds, but why not experience it with me?

Chocolate and Chriopractors...what? Well my week last week started with a day full of tears at the stress in my job. There was no way to get all that I needed done, nor did I like any of the solutions to navigate the week. So I cried at my supervisor's desk for an hour, unable to stop. As the day finally ended and there was no good answer and the stress was mounting, literally up my neck into my head producing an incredible migraine, I made the best decision I could: I went to hang out with my favorite family in LA. My little friends Zane (6) and Audrey (3) teach me so much and their home has become a refuge of escape for me. Zane teaches me to not take myself so seriously, and to enjoy being excited about anything purely for the thrill of being excited. Audrey reminds me to play and use my imagination and to not be afraid to mix princesses with structure.

That particular night I ended up at their door with tears in my eyes from a long day. I sat and played princesses with Audrey while Zane played Bionicals and Scott and Amy just talked to me. A few minutes into my lamenting about my day and being unable to stop crying, Zane says to me, "wanna know what I do when I can't stop crying?" I respond, "sure buddy, what do you do?" He proceedes to look at me very seriously and says, "I just slap myself in the face, it works every time!"

The simplicity of a child. I started to laugh so hard and was so quickly reminded to not take myself so seriously. My little friend really wanted to help me with great advice, so he could help me stop crying and that he did. That night around 10, after the kids were in bed, and I had cried quite a bit more about the state of my place of work and my heart to see it become better Amy looks at me and says let's go get Chocolate cake. This in itself is an ordeal becuase chocolate and sweets give me Migraines, and I didn't really need any help this week getting one of those...but my wonderful friend found a bakery in LA that makes everything without sugar! And let me tell you it was the BEST chocolate cake I have ever had.

Playing princesses helped, 6 year old advice helped, safe refuge of a house in LA helped, and chocolate cake definitely helped, but things still were painful in my body and the STRESS was increasing. I ended up by Wednesday in the Chriopractor's office because I woke up, but my body did not. I was in such pain and knew that the stress was winning. I have never been to a Chriopractor before and didn't know what to expect. I walked in the door after driving 30 minutes across LA and was instantly at ease. Ever have those moments where you just know that a place is safe and good? If you haven't I hope you do one day because there is a peace that comes over you even in the midst of pain. The chiropractor is this sweet and fiesty hispanic man that sat and listened to me, watched me cry, and after Xrays and an exam looked at me and said you are stressed out beyond what your body can handle. You need to laugh, you need to enjoy life, you need to realize what is causing your stress, and begin enjoying life again.

So now my journey really begins. I need to calm down, laugh more, do things that are fun, and really enjoy the life that I have been given to live. So I can quit my job, eat "chocolate" cake, play with little kids and never work again. But that doesn't seem all that realistic, nor really what I want my life to look like.

If you want to watch this journey unfold and be apart of seeing me learn to not take my life too seriously come with me. Life is not meant to be lived in stress...if it was Stressed spelled backwards wouldn't spell DESSERTS:)

Thought to ponder: what would life be like without chocolate and stress?

Talk to you again soon...