Our town has been mostly snowbound for 2 weeks now.  Kids and parents are getting a bit stir crazy. Along with half the town, I feel a bit stuck in a rut.  There are a million projects to do around the house that we never seem to get to--and now I have time to do them--but no motivation. I  Today is Valentine’s Day and I realize I didn’t get the kids or my husband a card or plan anything romantic or fun yet. Eeek! And yet I find myself numbly scrolling Facebook and Instagram.  

Stuck in a rut.

Have you been there, too?

Today I’m sharing something magical. Something I unexpectedly stumbled upon this morning.  Maybe you already got the memo, but it’s a nice lightbulb moment for me.

Ready?  Play piano.  Ok, not really.  But PLAY.

Ask yourself, and be honest: when was the LAST time you did something JUST BECAUSE?

 I realized that even playing games with my kids, though I thoroughly enjoy it, is something I value because it’s good for the family and our relationships.  There is a purpose to it greater than myself. My business with essential oils is something I absolutely LOVE and so I enjoy that work. But it’s still about more than just me having fun.  

This week, snowed in, I realized that there is very little in my life that I do simply because I love it and it brings me joy ALONE.  If you are a mom of littles, I’m pretty sure you get that. We can be stretched pretty thin during that season of life. When I had my daughter, my second child, I put away my music and my knitting and my crafting and focused on caring for our family, and community and keeping things on an even keel as they grew.  I love it of course, but there is purpose, a doing for a reason.

Today, as I spent a few minutes in meditation reflecting on unconditional love, I realized that to love myself is to allow myself to pleasure of doing something JUST BECAUSE I WANT TO.  Just because it brings me joy and for NO ONE ELSE.

Back to the piano.  I love music and took piano lessons for years as a kid.  I never got very good at it even though I practiced, but I LOVED playing.  My parents were very gracious as I made “a joyful noise” for hours on end. After I got married and moved about, I invested in a Clavinova ostensibly so my kids could take piano lessons. They did, and it was put to use and then after they stopped lessons, it was pushed under my bed.  

Because I don’t really play well--I stumble through songs as I sight-read and can’t play by ear AT ALL--I never really play for my family.  Because there isn’t a greater purpose, it just got pushed aside. Recently, I decided that it’s time I pull out the things I love so that they are at least accessible and remind me of those forgotten parts of my soul.  So it’s been sitting in a place of honor in my bedroom...mostly still untouched.

This morning, I chose to honor myself and indulge in playing piano.  I put headphones on because though my daughter might enjoy it somewhat, this was FOR ME.  I played some old favorites from a simple book, stumbling over sections and definitely not keeping the rhythm successfully.  But OH, I enjoyed it so much. Hearing the sounds that my fingers were making flood my ears filled my soul up deep down in my solar plexus, all the way up through my shoulders and throat.  

Joy bubbled up in my heart. I spent 10 minutes, just 10 minutes playing.

As I moved into other parts of my day--walking the dog, cleaning the kitchen, planning school with my daughter, I noticed a change.  

I was no longer in a rut!

Walking the dog I heard the birds chirping loudly and realized that they must be having trouble finding food. I thought about the millet and quinoa in my cupboard that we likely won’t touch for months, and decided to spread it atop the snow in the backyard.  My daughter and I talked about ASL and learning songs in Sign Language. I decided to write this blogpost. I put oils in my diffusers and am excited once again about creating new things--wordswags for my family and that Christmas gift that has yet to be created for my doTERRA team.  

What changed?  I allowed myself time to press the pause button on my productive doing self and just be what I wanted purely because I wanted it.  

I invited myself to experience beauty. The beauty of something I loved to do and to hear.

When you look back into your past, your youth, maybe your young adult years, what is it that sticks out and brings a smile to your face?  What do YOU love to do or experience that you haven’t made time for--maybe in a very long time? Where can you bring a bit of beauty into your life?  

What’s cool about this is that it does not have to be a full day event or a retreat or a vacation.  10 minutes of piano playing did it for me. What if you allowed yourself to buy flowers for your home instead of the normal latte you get on the way to work?  What if you put your favorite music on and danced with abandon in your bedroom, by yourself, for yourself? What if you broke out your old color pencils or watercolor paint and just enjoyed it again for a few minutes?

How could those few minutes color the rest of your day differently?

If you feel COMPLETELY stuck and can’t seem to access ideas, I invite you to pull out an essential oil.  DoTERRA’s Passion blend is ideal for this. Put a drop in your hands, rub them together, cup your hands around your nose and inhale deeply.  The olfactory bulb will carry those molecules right to your limbic brain and set them off into creative mode where you can think differently that your current stuck thinking.  It helps my daughter get out of a funk and shift her thinking, enabling her to find new possibilities, new ways to move forward.

If you don’t have the Passion blend, you can order it through your Wholesale account, or:

I hope you share in the comments what you did and how it affected you! If you are like me and love to be productive, love to check things off a list and find ourselves feeling good only if we’ve accomplished “something” --this is for you.  I realized that I can be “work” oriented--ALL THE TIME. When our lives are busy and full, we might not notice. But when we’re snowed in, all of a sudden, we get to see our patterns from a different viewpoint.