Shiny & new

An insightful blog ahead....

A move, or any big life change for that matter, brings on a flurry of new things.  A new "home," new gym, new friends, new job....the list goes on.  New things can make life adventurous, exciting and/or stressful.  I generally find too many new things stressful.  Even if I treat myself to a little shopping spree I usually find myself stressin' after realizing the damage I've done to the 'ol credit card, despite all my new found treasures.  But sometime new things are coming whether you like it or not.

With the move we certainly had a choice to move or not, however with Colin being offered an amazing step for his career, how could I/we say no to that?!?  So we accepted the move and here we are in Connecticut.  I haven't moved in 3 1/2 years, which is the longest I've lived anywhere since high school.  So now I have found myself in an explosion of new!  New things are definitely exciting and can bring on new opportunities, such as Colin's job & his budding opportunities because of that new job.  But with this new overload I have found myself yearning for the "normal" I'm used to and feeling little overwhelmed by the new.  I mean come on you can even sense the dogs' anxiety when there's too much change!

In the past month I have started a new job, moved to a new state, tried new running routes, made some new friends, bought a new car, tried various new yoga studios & gyms and that's just to name a few.  In another 5 1/2 weeks (not like we are counting ;)  ) we will move to another new house.  Then BAM another new commute and new daily routine.  Life keeps changing and you have to embrace the new normals.  I have stress with most new things that I try.  But once I fall in love with the activity, food, job (whatever it is that happens to be new) I can't believe I didn't do/try it sooner.  New things can enrich your life immensely.  I finally reached a goal of achieving forearm headstand in yoga...AMAZING!  New pose = new limits.  Or even something simple, like hello why didn't I start watching House of Cards sooner???  Because we make excuses in order to not scare ourselves with something unknown.  I think the new stuff is what keeps us growing and becoming more of who we are.

In addition, I believe that embracing the new normal can also be accompanied by missing the "old normal."  Just because I make new friends, doesn't mean the ones I've had prior get left in the dust, right?  Right.  I believe the same applies to all areas of my life.  Things don't always have to be replaced with the new, just substituted.

Although new can be scary and stressful, I challenge people to try something new at least weekly.  Scare yourself!  It keeps you growing and learning.  Plus we all can't just stay the same...that would be WAY too boring!