If you follow my social media accounts (links below), you know by now that my husband and I took a short vacation to Sedona, AZ last week.  It was, easily, one of the most amazing trips we’ve ever taken (more on that in a future post), but as we come into the holiday and new year season, I wanted to share a few lessons that I learned scaling the beautiful red rock mountains.  Some of these aren’t new.  You’ll hear echoes from my previous lessons learned series or my fear series, but my experience hiking through the beautiful Arizona landscape drove home a few points that I couldn’t help but repeat…

Sometimes feelings are just feelings (and not facts). I used to give my clients the analogy that if you were walking along a path in the woods and came across what you thought was a snake, you would immediately feel the sensation of panic/fear.  But if you looked again and realized that what you thought was a snake was actually a stick, your fear would dissolve.  The point is that the feeling of fear doesn’t make that stick a snake.  Feelings aren’t facts… they are simply matters of perception.  And if perception drives how we feel, then we always have the choice to make a change.  This analogy made me laugh out loud at myself as I wound my way through our first hike.  There were several moments when I went to put my foot down and gasped so loud that my husband asked if I was ok… and it was all because I thought I was about to step on a snake when it was really a stick or tree root.  It reminded me that I needed to take this lesson back home for myself.  Feeling fearful, or unsure of myself, has often been the roadblock to success in my life.  If this is the case for you too, remember to look at that snake again.  Is it really as scary as it seems? Is it really just a stick? 

Change your perception and your whole world will change with it.

Don’t forget to look up and enjoy the view.  This post comes on the verge of the height of the holiday season.  And y’all, this holiday has been an all-caps kind of CRAZY season for my family.  Between travelling, family events, and illnesses; everything is getting done last minute.  I found myself thinking the other day, “gosh, I can’t wait until Christmas is over,” which made me stop and pay attention to my thoughts.  I usually love Christmas… why was I wishing for it to be over?  It made me take a moment to re-evaluate and reminded me of our hikes.  Sometimes those hikes get hard.  You’re breathing hard, your muscles are burning, and you’re paying close attention to each foot placement so you don’t fall – and suddenly you realize – you haven’t looked up in 30 minutes and you probably missed some incredible views.  That’s when you make an effort to try to be mindful to glance up every now and then or take breaks and look around.  And that is what I’m trying to remember this holiday and into the new year…

Stop. Look around. What are you missing out on? Don’t forget to enjoy the best part… the view.

And finally, you are way more capable than you think you are. Insert brave, smart, talented, or any other word that fits you. In the photos below, you’ll see a climb that took every ounce of bravery and self-confidence that I could muster.  This climb doesn’t look nearly as scary in the photos as it did in person, but we were literally scaling the side of a mountain.  I almost didn’t go up.  I told my husband to go without me.  And then I looked around at the people who were coming back down.  Some of them were in poor climbing attire, some of them didn’t look like very skilled climbers… and I thought… well, if they can do it, then darn it, so can I!  And so, I did.  I swallowed my fear and went for it.  And the view at the top? Totally and completely worth it.  I would have been so devastated to see the pictures later if I hadn’t gone up there.  And this reminds me.  We can do way more than we think we can.  Sometimes, we just need to ignore the negative thoughts in our brains and go for it. 

Often, we will find we have way more skills than we thought we did.  And even more often, we’ll find that the view at the end of the journey made every ounce of grit we had to muster up to get there… totally worth it.

• 

• 

• 

And so, as you make your way into this holiday season, and maybe more importantly, into the new year, I hope you will find these lessons as helpful as I did.  

Please make sure to share this post with someone who might need these words too!  Also, don’t forget to like this post and/or follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!  The more you share, the easier it is for new people to find me! 

Thank you all for sharing this blogging journey with me, I appreciate each and every one of you! And if you don’t hear from me beforehand, I hope you all have a truly Merry Christmas and/or the Happiest of Holidays!

As always, stay Healthy as Heck, KH