Fruitful Day...

A diagnosis from my doctor of "obviously too much stress because your stomach is eating itself (that might be a paraphrase)," left me wondering where the stress is. Because I don't feel particularly stressed out. But then again...

My life is pretty cluttered. I feel like it is in that "cluttered on its way to being simplified" place, though. With the recent discovery on my part that convenience really is more convenient, but simple is healthier and takes less of a toll on our bodies, Jeff and I began at the beginning. Making our foods from scratch, and making our ingredients from scratch. I have been making skin care from scratch, and have decided to share the wealth...

I'm opening an etsy store called Bee Beautiful, to sell natural, beeswax based skin care products. I'm really excited about it, and cannot wait to see it take off. Unfortunately, though, "we are trying to do house-stuff in an apartment," as my very observant husband put it.

We live in a small place, and though we dream of a farm, that is not where we are at this moment. So, as if our apartment was not cluttered enough with the day-to day, there is now a great big pile of things in our living room. Ingredients for skin care products, boxes that I do not want to throw away because I can ship things out in them, packing peanuts and bubble wrap; all these things have taken over our tiny living space.

Clutter really stresses me out. It is quite ironic, because my initial response to seeing a very cluttered room is wanting to take a very long nap, so you would not think that there were ulcer-inspiring levels of stress here. But when you break it down it looks like this: clutter makes me anxious, which makes me want to do something, but gives me the impression that there is no good place to begin. In seconds, my mind has already covered potential starting points and why starting there will not work, since I need to also do this...and over-stimulation is almost instant. The next step is exhaustion. I'm the same way with homework (or rather, I was, in college).

So it surprised me when the doctor was asking about stress, because I could not think of a single situation that was causing me stress. But it is my inability to properly deal with clutter.

So...I usually need a crisis moment to get me into motion, finally. That was probably my appointment with the doctor, telling me that I needed to get my stress management into shape. He also told me not to eat to many fatty foods or spicy/acidic foods for the next couple weeks. I have to admit, though, that I only plan on following that about 3/4 of the time. The high fat foods I eat are not indulgent, but usually full of healthy fats. And I cannot live without garlic. Neither, for that matter, can my husband.

Today I began in the kitchen. It is the main place that the skin-care-making has gone on, so it was a natural first start. I did dishes, I put things away. I made a new batch of dish soap, I did more dishes. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the mound of stuff beside me. Unfortunately, we have plans for the afternoon / evening, so it will have to wait until late tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Honestly, that is probably good. It will give me a chance for some reprieve.

Anyway, I'm excited about what I got done today...and what I will get done tomorrow!