Scheduling Simplicity

I’ve been doing some work for a local company for the last couple weeks, and I’ve been growing increasingly out of sorts. So on our daily walk, I talked it out with Raymond until I got to the source of it. I like the work and the company, and it’s just a short project, so I knew it wasn’t that. Nor was it lack of sleep or exercise. I was being good about that, as well as being sure I was still eating healthily. Was it hormones? No.

I finally hit on it – it was simply one thing I’d dropped out when my schedule changed, and that was my daily writing. It was something I’d started after reading The Artists Way, and although I almost never want to write those daily three pages, they had come to be like meditation, prayer, and thanks giving, all rolled up into one. Doing it gets me present to what’s going on with myself, and in a place of gratitude for all of my life -- the good, the bad, the ugly.

When I first decided not to do my daily writing, I justified it by thinking I’d glean the benefits in some other way, like appreciating nature while I was on my run, for example. But that didn’t work. So I put the habit back in today, and Raymond noticed the difference when he called me. Said I sounded like I had “a spring in my step, and candy in my pouch.”

So, yes, it is another thing on my calendar. But it is a thing that feeds me, that gives me energy.

What are the things you do (or don’t do, as the case may be) that nurture you? What brings simplicity and peace into your day? Are you doing it? Where could you fit it in to your schedule? Do you need to let something else go so there’s room for it?

Simple living does not just happen, especially in our culture and time. Most of us are pulled in the opposite direction. Or we get so burnt out we do things that don’t really feed us, like watching TV or eating or drinking too much.

So this week, I challenge you to promise one thing you will do for yourself everyday that nurtures you. Put in it your calendar. Do it. And please let me know how it goes.