Transitions are hard for me. I guess they are hard for everyone, right?

Stepping out of the warm bed in the morning to get ready for the day is hard.

When I am sitting sipping my coffee after my son leaves for school, getting up and driving to the gym is hard.

When I am having lunch after a hard workout, getting up to go to the studio is hard.

Going out in the cold for a walk after my morning writing session is hard.

Going to the kitchen to prepare dinner in the evening after my rest time with reading blogs and books is hard.

Getting up from the comfy couch and chatting with the family to brush my teeth and get into bed is the hardest!

All these transitions are difficult for me.

But the last one at night is definitely the most difficult.

Unless I am super tired and ready to drop into bed, I don’t want to let go of the day. I don’t want to have to summon energy at the end of the day to do more things, that are not particularly fun. I don’t want to leave the comfort of being with my family and go brush.

The way I make transitions easier is by finding something to look forward to in the next thing I am about to transition to. With  that in my mind, I can summon the excitement to move ahead to the next thing.

When I am getting out of bed, I look forward to all that I have planned for the day.

For going to the gym, my current audiobook is what gets me excited.

With studio time, it’s the warm studio (I have a space heater), and the ideas bubbling out of me that is exciting.

But with going to bed, there is nothing to look forward to. It’s the end of all the excitement. It’s where the day ends. No more is coming.

With that said, the moment I get into bed is also my favourite moment of the day– when all has been taken care of, and now I am done thinking, and planning and hustling.

Only rest awaits.

But that moment of relief somehow is never enough to want me to get up and go brush my teeth and change my clothes. I guess brushing and changing are just not exciting things to do. But I do them anyways. And somehow get to bed in good time for a 9:30 lights-off.

Because, the worse feeling than giving up my comfy spot on the couch in the evening, is me imagining waking up tired and groggy the next day and having low energy all the day long. Not something I want to live through if I can help it.

So all in all, when the excitement of the next thing to come doesn’t help me transition, it is the feeling of bad things to come if I don’t transition, that gets me there.

So between excitement of good things, or threats of bad things, I somehow make the transitions happen.

Either way, life gets lived with most things taken care of on most days. And that makes me happy. 

That makes the moment I get into bed a moment of pure joy and relief.