I DO still have a brain!

Every week, I run into moms who are so tired and worn out, they don’t know which way is up. When I ask how much time they get alone, they often respond by laughing hysterically or by saying they don’t have time to fit that into the schedule. So…I’ve decided to post a “Take Time for Yourself” reminder every week – to remind me to take time out and encourage my friends to do the same! It rejuvenates me so much, I feel like I could run a marathon afterward. (Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration…but I do feel so much better!)

This week, while sipping tea at my local hangout, instead of internet surfing/post writing/Facebooking, I had a lengthy conversation with a doctoral student who is working on a groundbreaking medical program. The possibility it has for changing medicine as we know takes my breath away – really! I didn’t ask his permission to post an explanation of his work so I won’t go into it. But the details of his dissertation don’t really matter as much as what that conversation did for me.

Since having my first daughter, I often feel like my brain is too fried to process the kind of research that interested me prior to her birth. But tonight, for the first time in a long while, I feel fascinated, challenged and excited about something that fuels a passion in me – living life to the fullest and encouraging others to do the same. Part of that passion is related to individual health.

For me, health isn’t the absence of being sick. Health is respecting my need to nurture myself in three major ways – mentally, physically and spiritually (not necessarily in that order). Tonight, by engaging in a lively conversation with someone far more knowledgeable than me, I rediscovered a part of my brain I thought might be dead forever. (What a relief to know it’s not!)

In fact, I feel so good, I think I may go for a ru - I mean a hike!