Intentional living is slowing down and choosing what you want to do in your life. As opposed to reactional living. For years I found myself reacting to life. Kids are screaming, I’ll push dinner time back. Husband wants to go watch the roping, reschedule life to make it fit. Sick kids, cancel all of my life and shove it into another day. What do I have in the fridge to feed kids, hot dogs it is. Neighbor asks me to babysit, sure why not. School sends message saying they need more snacks, make a trip to buy them. It felt like life was spinning out of control, and I really didn’t have a say.
It seems with one simple step, I was able to change all that. I simply had to decide what I wanted my life to look like. Do I want to buy school snacks even when I don’t have the money right now? What are my priorities and does this activity we were invited to help us reach them? How much stuff do I want to maintain in my home? What kinds of food do I want to feed my children? What are our family values? How much do I want to volunteer, have play dates, etc.?
By taking the time to decide what kind of life I want, I can make intentional choices. With intentional choices, I feel in control of my life. Not all the things happening around me. This week we are getting ready for a big snow storm where the roads may close for several days. Because I decided that creating an atmosphere in our home that helps our neurodivergent kids help regulate their bodies, I just bought frozen meals and more craft supplies. This means after being in the house all day while the kids are getting on each others nerves, instead of stressing about making a home made meal I am going to chose to get out the beads and pipe cleaners. I have intentionally chosen to give up healthier meals to be available to help regulate nervous systems. Mine included.
Another intentional choice I’ve made recently is to simplify what our Christmas looks like this year. I have fallen into the realm of trying to make kids happy on Christmas morning. That required spending too much money, having more stuff than we have places to keep them safe, and overwhelmed kiddos on Christmas day. So we intentionally decided to scale back. Do I have drama about what if they don’t like their gifts and are bored on Christmas Day? You bet I do. But I know that our family values time spent together over things that get broken and forgotten. So I choose to think of the fun we are going to have playing a new game together and the people we will visit instead. Now, I feel in control of my Christmas experience instead of forced into how its supposed to look.
