I’m one of the 800,000.

What many of you may not know is that my day job as I’m building my business is writing for the federal government.

So the government shutdown is giving me a great opportunity to practice what I preach.

It’s giving me the opportunity to:

• Be aware of negative thoughts and emotions—and to consciously shift my response.
• Be compassionate and loving with myself when I am having a stress reaction, which absolutely has included falling into the peanuts and chocolate.
• Be compassionate and loving with my husband when he is having a stress reaction.
• Focus on gentle and loving self-care. My body is letting me know that less intensity workouts are what I need right now.
• Do all those things I say I’m going to do “when I have more time.”
• Relax into my absolute knowing that the Universe has my back and that no matter what happens, everything is always working out for me.

I’ll be honest. I’ve had more negative emotion around this shut-down than I anticipated.

Fortunately I have learned enough that instead of just trying to push through it (I’ve got a blog to write, dam it), I’m stopping right there and going to meditate.

Ah, what a relief.

The energy surge I have afterwards lets me know this was absolutely the right response.

You can make these kinds self-care choices—even if you are in the midst of a hectic day.

A woman I worked with a while ago was feeling the stress of going non-stop all day.

She found herself running late to a meeting that she was dreading. As she drove to the site, she thought about the distraction of her late arrival, and how bad that would make her feel.

As she pulled into the parking lot, she decided to just skip the meeting completely and go back to her office and get caught up with her work. As soon as she did that, her mood elevated and the rest of her day was more in-balance and productive.

Often women feel stuck treading the path laid out their to-do list and calendars. You dutifully trudge through the negative feelings because you don’t feel like you have a choice.

When you approach life in this way, it throws you into victimhood. You are not in control of life. Life is in control of you.

Here’s some tough love for you.

You will never achieve the body of your dreams if you are continually a victim.

The truth is, you always have a choice.

Granted, you may really not like the consequence of an action or feel like the experience you are going through is not one you would have chosen (furlough anyone?), but you still have the power of choice.

Let’s say that if my client hadn’t gone to the meeting, she would have been fired. She still had the choice to attend the meeting or not.

When you approach things as your choice, you increase your positive energy and can see situations and solutions with more clarity.

Another stumbling block is thinking the consequences of changing your actions will be worse than they truly will be.

For instance, my client might have gone to the meeting fearing that if she didn’t show up she would be fired. That may or may not be true. Most likely, missing a meeting is not the end of the world and will not result in someone getting fired. (Note: I’m not advocating skipping meetings!)

My point is to take back your power.

Recognize that you have a choice about everything you do. And that often, taking the time to shift your energy from negative to positive will actually improve your chances of success.

In my case, giving myself permission to take care of me by taking an hour-and-a-half to rest and meditate completely shifted my energy. As a result I have whipped out this blog.

I have no doubt that had I stayed and forced myself to do it, A.) it wouldn’t have been as good, and B.) it probably would have taken me even longer to do because of the procrastination and false starts I would have encountered.

Another benefit of taking the time to shift my energy is that I’m also much more up for moving my body and all the things I want to get done today so that I milk as much value from this furlough day as possible.

What can you do today to give yourself permission to take care of you?  How might that actually help you create the body you want?

Together we can do it!