How quickly do your thoughts move?
If you’re anything like me during a normal humbuzzing week, you might feel like your brain has been violently wrenched from within its cozy cavernous cranial housing and strapped into Tony Kanaan’s No. 11 team car for a record-breaking 226,775 mph spin around the Indy track.
Thoughts are incredibly complex.
They are fickle, fleeting, finite, frivolous, and can be – frankly – fucked up…
Is it weird that I don’t really think that’s an odd thing to ponder? Maybe to you. But, I’m no stooge. I know a little bit about what the mind can do when it’s under pressure, whether it is low-fi or hi-fi pressure.
So, the point here is that even during the best of times when life is relatively even keel and things are just a-rolling along, our heads are crammed with stuff. Throw Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and Las Posadas in there and it all gets to be….
TOO MUCH!
And if you are also trying to process life, and its attendant unexpected surprises and detours, while dealing with any of the following:
-Highly Sensitive Person (that person being You)
- anxiety
-depression
- loss or death of loved one
- birth
- financial excreta ie. broke as shit
- a trip to the f***ing grocery store on a Saturday afternoon or – Krishna forbid! – holiday shopping in mall mayhem!
- multitudinous sources of stress that have everything or nothing to do with the above
It’s all -> -> -> TOO F***ING MUCH!
Okay, so here’s the thing. I discovered something amazing while I was steadily making my ascent up the craggy cliffs of Bananaville these last couple of weeks.
It isn’t new. In fact, it is ancient. And it starts with this:
Slow down
And then it goes like this:
Do less
That’s it.
All of that stuff that you are telling yourself you have to do.
You don’t.
All of those holiday get-togethers and greeting cards and blog posts and play dates and – whoa! – everything else you’re telling yourself…
Can wait. Can disappear.
Guess what I did? I committed to doing Reverb 10 earlier this month, and then I decided, after just two prompts, to drop it. Not because I’m an underachiever, or lazy, or uncommitted or undisciplined but, in fact, because I am the very opposite.
I was trying to do too much.
So, I really really really started listening, tuned in to my body, got some quietness working in me and levelled with myself.
I asked:
What do I need right now?
And I swiftly replied,
Less.
Then I contemplated what doing less looks like for me.
A complete halt to a book project, the blog, extracurricular fretting about the coming holiday, and some old fashioned crying action.
Paying keen attention to what is immediately important.
Is it the end of the world if I don’t run around like a jackass trying to be and do everything right now?
No.
Who makes the rules?
You do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rundown:
When everything is just TOO F***ING MUCH!
Slow down
Breathe. Do the opposite of busying yourself into a stupor. Cancel the party. Don’t go to 3 shindigs in one day. Don’t send a Happy Unholiday card to your great great Uncle Fred in Tristan de Cunha. Don’t plan to repaint the bathroom, write 15 blog posts, host guests in town for the weekend, and start a new fitness regime in the same week, or month, or year. Say no to someone, even if that someone is you, when they are pushing you to do, do, do. Let some things go. Drop them. Bless and release.
Doing less
Think of the infinite to-do list as your infinite undo list.
Invite some space into your life, your head, your heart, and get cozy.
Hug yourself.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you dig this shtick I recommend visiting as regularly as possible, or subscribe to the blog up top where it says FRESH OUT THE OVEN. I also hang on Twitter occasionally {@vuelacara}, though because I am a Highly Sensitive Person sometimes I have to retreat for many days before re-emerging from beneath the soft light of a reading lamp and the warmth of a fuzzy blanket.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fade to black
I invite you to consider this space as you would a cherished friend’s sprawling deck overlooking the garden on a sunny weekend afternoon. Enjoy a cocktail, but please know this: kind words enhance while negatives detract. Keep it nice. Keep it clean.
Or just keep it.
Go tell it on the mountain:
lovin spoonful