Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that life is stressful and life is wonderful.
Speaker 1: There is no contradiction here. Rather than impose a single
Speaker 1: narrative on life, we can acknowledge both truths and see
Speaker 1: both kinds of moments for what they are. Today's tip,
Speaker 1: like several others, this week, comes from my book I
Speaker 1: Know How She Does It, which is ten years old
Speaker 1: this month. For this book, I studied one thousand and
Speaker 1: one days in the lives of women who had big
Speaker 1: jobs and who also had kids at home to see
Speaker 1: what life really looked like. I've found that in the
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight hours of a week, there
Speaker 1: is plenty of time to work, a family, time, sleep, exercise, read,
Speaker 1: see friends, and so forth. Lots of people do, in
Speaker 1: fact have it all. Of course, there were stressful moments too.
Speaker 1: Any one hundred and sixty eight hours has some highs
Speaker 1: and lows. But I think it is important to zoom
Speaker 1: out and see both the good moments and the bad
Speaker 1: moments together without deciding that the bad needs to define everything.
Speaker 1: To illustrate this in the book, I told the story
Speaker 1: of a summer day trip to the Jersey Shore. If
Speaker 1: I wanted to point to evidence that this trip was
Speaker 1: a disaster, I could. We got stuck in traffic on
Speaker 1: the way there, which turned a ninety minute trip into
Speaker 1: a four hour one. This is really fun when you
Speaker 1: are pregnant, as I was at the time, and not
Speaker 1: near any bathrooms. On the way home. My two year
Speaker 1: old daughter lost her pacifier, so she screamed for much
Speaker 1: of the trip, and my four year old son got sick,
Speaker 1: so he was vomiting most of the way home. Good times.
Speaker 1: But those were not the only things that happened on
Speaker 1: this day trip to the beach. I had a really
Speaker 1: good lunch, The beach was beautiful. Even on the trip home.
Speaker 1: There were a few blessed moments when no one was
Speaker 1: screaming or throwing up. I didn't have to tell the
Speaker 1: story of this beach trip as a disaster because it
Speaker 1: wasn't all a disaster. It had both its ups and
Speaker 1: its downs. Life is stressful and life is wonderful. What
Speaker 1: would change if you consciously used that language? What if
Speaker 1: you really leaned into that word? And I worked late
Speaker 1: on Monday, and I had a really lovely family dinner
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. The baby woke up three times during the
Speaker 1: night on Thursday, and I had an amazing lunch with colleagues.
Speaker 1: The flight to Hawaii, you felt endless with small kids,
Speaker 1: and the Hawaii landscape is just stunning. I am so
Speaker 1: glad I saw it. All these things can be simultaneously true,
Speaker 1: so why fret if one is more true than the other.
Speaker 1: Happiness comes from seeing the good moments, even if there
Speaker 1: are rough ones happening as well. Either or stories, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, just tend to limit our lives in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.