We're moving into the holiday season. It's a time of year when many of us feel we have to follow a prescribed program of holiday preparations, traditions, and end-of-year rushes and projects. It's easy to go on "autopilot" and not even consider whether we have to or want to do the things that are showing up on our To Do lists. I want to remind myself – and all of you – that we can choose. It seems we especially need this reminder this time of year.
When you're pregnant, your care choices – specifically – can often feel like they are a package deal. Make one decision and you get a lot of default options along with it. For example, you choose your OB-GYN and then it’s assumed that you’ll deliver at the doctor’s usual hospital and that you’re on board with the protocols that the hospital typically follows for epidurals or with having residents present because it’s a teaching hospital, etc. Or you choose your midwife and then you’re expected to deliver at home, naturally in a birthing tub.
It’s understandable that certain “defaults” or “assumptions” might go with a care provider choice. For some of us, it might be perfectly fine and even preferable to take some decisions off our plates. It might feel easier when the path is set up, and you can just check in with your own inner guidance to see if it’s working for you as it unfolds.
The flip side is that it can feel like you’re trapped in all these subsequent choices and you have no option but to go with them. It can feel as if decisions have been made for you. In those instances, you have the opportunity turn off the autopilot and not go with the “typical” options.
Where have you gone with the "default" because that's what felt good? Where have you not gone with the "default"?
Comment on your holiday or end-of-year choices AND/OR on your pregnancy choices!
I choose not to send out Christmas cards. No part of that process brings me joy!