Nikki and I are back from our official honeymoon and it was filled with adventures of art, cool little streets and great local cuisine. The best part was the time we spent together laughing and creating memories we can rely on for the rest of our lives. I made Nikki laugh so hard she was crying. Her laughter just lights this little bit of joy in my heart and I try to make her do it as much as I can. We learned a lot from this trip as a married couple and I learned a lot from this trip as a watcher of life.

There will be many stories, ideas, and Next Step Moments (taking that next step towards a better life) that I just know will pervade my thoughts for the next couple of weeks and they will be peppered throughout my blogs. I want to tell you a short little “Aha” moment that happened on the plane ride back to San Antonio. We flew for 11 ½ hours from Rome to Atlanta and our bodies and minds were way off balance because we traveled with the sun. There is something strange about not seeing the sun set in the winter.

We arrived in Atlanta and went through customs, which took over an hour. The hard part was that we couldn’t check to see if we were going to make our next flight. We were stuck in line and there was nothing we could do. I tried to get us to the front by telling the airport staff that we had a flight leaving in a half hour, but no one cared. One employee laughed and told me that we should get our money back from the booking agent because they were supposed to give us two hours in between an international flight and a domestic. It was at this point that Nikki and I looked at each other and saw the exhaustion in each other’s eyes, shrugged our shoulders and hoped for the best, but didn’t expect anything.

After we made it through customs, we found out we were lucky that it was pouring rain in Atlanta because our plane was delayed three hours. The storm was on our side. We waited around, unable to read, write or eat because we were so exhausted. We laid around the airport’s plastic seats and it was then that I felt really irritable. My body was going into rebellion. It wanted rest, but was unable to get it. I itched and twitched, unable to get comfortable in any place. Our plane finally boarded and we still had a 2 ½ hour flight to San Antonio, which only made me feel worse. I now understand what a little baby feels like right before it starts crying. I wanted to cry, but held my composure and suffered quietly.

I felt extremely off balance and in pain. I was only adding to all this by feeding my thoughts with a negative question of “When will this torture end?” It was at this point that I could make this situation worse by wanting it to be different or I could meditate on all the feelings and let everything flow a little bit easier. I stopped trying to get comfortable and stayed in the moment. It worked – I stopped fighting the feelings and let myself just breathe in the now. When my foot itched I just felt the sensation. When my back ached I allowed it to throb. When my thoughts strayed toward hating the present moment I let them go. I challenged myself to improve my mental position. By taking this small step of meditating on the moment it calmed my uncomfortable feelings and made me appreciate all the hard work I’ve been putting into my personal development.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Stress Management.