I’m Back From the Mountains

The elevation of Cascade, Idaho is 4.7 thousand feet above sea level and now I’ve returned to the 558 feet above sea level prairie land life. You can say that I’ve had my head in the clouds. I spent my summer isolated in the mountains to rediscover my sense of self and to hit the reset button on my creativity. My life there was pretty dreamy. Literally, life in the woods was waking up early to hummingbirds, picking huckleberries, spending days at the river, toasting  marshmallows on roaring fires, and stargazing from the floor to ceiling windows of my sleeping quarters. In between all those lovely things I was journaling what I wanted my life to look like. With summer coming to an end, it meant that my dreamy isolated mountain life had to come to an end as well. It was time to get my head out of the clouds and put my feet back on the ground.

Wait.

I think it goes like this — Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.

I like that better and I love Mike Robbin’s explanation of the phrase:

When we allow ourselves to dream big (with our “head in the clouds”), how we keep our “feet on the ground” is by coming up with intentional and appropriate actions to move forward with our goals, even if we’re scared and not sure how things will turn out. We often need guidance, advice, and support in this process – because it can be confusing, intimidating, or both.

About a week or two before our return flight home, I was experiencing some anxiety about being back home. When my therapist asked how I was doing being back and if I had experienced any stress (my Sunday scaries post on Instagram should answer that), I hesitantly answered, “yeah.” I don’t think I wanted to acknowledge the stress because I was scared it would undo the work I had done over the summer. My therapist acknowledged that my feelings made sense because I “was returning to the scene of the crime.” The scene being the home we were quarantined in for a year and a half and the crime being the pandemic revealing the cracks in our lives.

Being back meant having to face life’s stresses with new tools in hand.  It’s like I spent all summer rehearsing a play. Coming back to normal life was opening night and life is the play where I’d be applying what I had practiced every single day. In every single situation. That’s a scary thought, ain’t it? But it’s also pretty exciting. Here are the things that I do that to help me keep some of that mountain magic as I’ve return to a life of routines and errands (as I say this, I’m trying not to think of all the huckleberries I didn’t get to pick and make more cake from…post on that coming soon). Okay, okay, so here are my making my dreams come true tips:

Be Aware:

There’s so much power in being aware of your feelings and seeing how your feelings play out in your actions. It’s so hard to verbally admit to another person (in my case, my husband) that I’m not okay and that I need help. It’s very vulnerable, but I leaned into it. Sure enough, doing so brought clarity to my situation and that build up of stress immediately dissipated. When you let go of that stress, you allow yourself to see that you’re actually very capable and you’ve been ready to take on the challenge of progressing in your life.

Get Enough Sleep:

I got the Rise Sleep Science app at the start of the pandemic to have some sense of structure during a chaotic time (btw did my commercial ever make it on Youtube?). I did okay then with my sleep. At the cabin, I was all over the place with my sleep thanks to my family who kept us up late to talk. I once stayed up until three in the morning because we stood in the kitchen just talking. Why we were in the kitchen just talking is unbeknownst to me, but that’s where we always end up. Anyway, we’ve been home for two weeks, and in those two weeks I cut down my sleep debt to ZERO! If there’s one game I like to play, it’s getting 100% energy potential in my Rise app! This is only possible because Jordan and I decided together that we were ending this getting-to-bed-late habit. We picked a time we wanted to be in bed by and worked backwards to create our family’s evening routine. And we all know that when we have a good night's sleep, it sets us up right for the next day allowing us to do the work to meet our goals.

Set Those Boundaries:

I haven’t hung out with anyone. It’s no-go on being social. When running errands one afternoon with Jordan I talked to him about how I used to go on playdates. ON MY WORK DAYS! In the past, I had treated working from home as a work option that allowed for more flexibility. No. No, it does not. Do not fool yourself. I’ll say this bluntly right here, right now. If you are ambitious and want to make your dreams a reality, you probs won’t have much of a social life. That was difficult for me to accept because I was the teenager who always had to be somewhere doing something. Also, FOMO is real. In Lorde’s interview with James Gordon she spoke on why she “cleansed” herself of social media: “. . .it’s very very difficult, but I only truly do it because I’m trying to write songs and I was wasting a bunch of time.” Set those boundaries. Say a big “No, thank you. Bye bye.” to those things and the people that are keeping you from what you truly love to do! And I include people because I had someone show up at my door wanting to take me out to lunch in the middle of my work day. And I was all annoyed with this person, but truly I was the one to blame because I didn’t take my work day seriously as I shared above. If you don’t take yourself seriously, you think anyone else is going to? Set those boundaries.

Get to Work:

I gave myself a week to recoup from traveling and to get the house I abandoned for the summer back in order. Also, I needed time to grieve the six plants that died while I was gone. When Monday came, I sat at my computer and started churning out those emails for fashion week. It took me a long time to be brave enough to send emails without my inner critic interrupting with, “You’re going to get all no’s. How embarrassing!” Doing the work overcomes those fears and it prepares you for the next step in achieving your goals. One of the goals I made over the summer was to take my illustrations to the next level. I can dream all I want about being a great fashion illustrator, but nothings gonna happen if I don’t pay my dues.You have to do the work of putting yourself out there.

Set Up Your Space for Success:

Declutter. That’s the key word. After you’ve gotten rid of all the things that don’t serve you, it’s time to designate and to organize! Each space in your home should have a purpose and it should be organized in a way that helps YOU fulfill your purpose. I’m sounding mystical, but I’m serious. So you know I’ve been working on getting to bed earlier and on having a nice relaxing evening routine. My bedroom was essentially a storage unit, first to the place where I slept. So, I didn’t enjoy being in my bedroom. The vibe was wrong. I am being mystical. I decluttered some stuff and rearranged things. Now my bedroom is a space where I can have my evening routine of reading and journaling in bed before it’s lights out.

At the end of our time in Idaho, my mother-in-law told me that I look happier. We weren’t the same people that arrived in Idaho on Mother’s Day. And no it wasn’t the exhaustion and haggard looks from our travels. A momma knows. The pandemic took a toll on us and she could see the weight we were carrying. Doing the work to have the life you want is not easy. We may have left the place where we did so much work, but it doesn’t mean the work ended there. It continues on. And as I live each moment in the present, I will see that it was all worth it. I leave you with one last Mike Robbin’s quote as one last encouragement:

Keeping our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground is a lot easier said than done. However, when we’re able to do both of these things with passion, intention, and focus – we create a sense of balance and peace that can allow us to have what we truly want in life.

Every small decision lays out a path before you. Here’s to happiness and I hope you’ll do what you can to have yours. 

Xoxo, Victoria