Take a Deep Breath

 

“Breathe”  that is what I hear all the time from people, not just those close to me, but from people on t.v. …we are a world full of stressed-out people.  Yep, everyone is stressed from their lives and challenges. But for those just like me and my family, we are using the admonishing “breathe” to help us get through a day and for some and hour and for even more a minute of the day raising a child with SPD and dyspraxia.

I know there were times early on in Elizabeth’s life that, as I replay them, I honestly DO NOT know how we got through them.  How did we get her to sit in the library?  How DID we get her to learn to cut?  And on and on.   Those were some hugely stressful times,

Being in public with the ever present threat of a meltdown, hurrying past noises, trying to pick the shortest check-out line and only hoping no one would try to talk to her.  So many of us understand these feelings but so many more do not.  Typical things that for them are typical are so very atypical for us.   So I was told to “breathe”

“Breathe through the stress” “breathe before I talk” “breathe before I try to figure out what to do next”  I gotta say sometimes the breathing does take the stress down a notch and other times it is simply an annoying command.  But at the very least, it gives us a millisecond to think before we react to the stress of the moment.

As I said before there was such overt stress, but now as time has passed and Elizabeth has grown older, the stresses are still there but not so many and not so overt but STILL THERE!   There are still days that overwhelm me and us, there are still moments where the SPD shines through a little too brightly and I am brought back in time to those crying episodes that were insanely stressful, and there are times when I feel the need to react.

This week had several of those moments, and I was not ready for them, as we had been humming along relatively well for a good while….so this week had its challenges as I am sure it did for all of you.   We made it through the week and with good thoughts for a calm weekend.  I wish you all peace this weekend and for the record I did remember to “breathe” …at least most of the time.

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