Last night I hosted the monthly zoom meetup for my online community on the topic of the small but important things we do to set ourselves up to feel good in our day, and little things we might add to our morning or evening routines to protect our peace as we move full speed into the holidays.
I speak to this one idea often: how the world can make us look for big dramatic leaps, but success is often in small shifts that change our course over time.
I have a very strong tendency to save things for later. To not wear something because it’s for a more special occasion, to not eat something because it’s for a more special meal, and even to not say things until it’s a more noteworthy date (big acts of love on Valentine’s Day but not a random Tuesday for example). The basic idea at play is delayed gratification. There are some times when delayed gratification is good. But I’ve been thinking about how if you’ve gotten a bit too good at it, the delays just might back fire and the satisfaction is voided.
“Yoga is the practice of getting comfortable being uncomfortable.” It’s one of my favorite quotes—even if I can’t quite trace its origin. I’ve seen it attributed to yoga teachers, Navy SEALs, and even Luvvie Ajayi Jones in her TED Talk. Its popularity across such different worlds tells me one thing: learning to sit with discomfort reaches far beyond the edges of the yoga mat.
I’ve been in a space of constant input and output. No wasted minutes. A podcast while driving. Saying yes to everyone else as often as I could. Spiraling in the shower as I considered all the things that could go wrong if I missed something. Reading more and more books but retaining less and less of their content. Zero quiet minutes.
We are wired to favor novelty. There’s a fair bit of professional study on this – we like things that are new and different. To be more accurate, “like” isn’t exactly the right word but it is fact that things that are new and different will draw our attention. We are all still kids with a new toy on Christmas day that leave it discarded by Boxing day.
A part of my plot to get rid of 100 things a day has been not only things that are physical but things that sit on my seemingly infinite to-do lists. For me, books are a massive to do list that could just as well be a very long list of all the books or […]
When I started this side quest, I knew I had digital and physical clutter and I suspected I would be happier if I could clear some of it out. Two months in I am still finding myself curious about the ‘extra’ that it turns out is all over my life. What has become clear is that getting rid of 100 things a day is far too often just holding steady on the number of things I have. I delete 100 pictures and somehow, I take 100 more. Donate some things only to turn around to packages by the door.
I recently led a thought session on nonattachment (or nonexcess), a common translation for aparigraha which is the fifth yama. The yamas are the first step of yoga (the shapes you may think of as yoga are the third of the eight steps) and are yoga philosophy’s first five guideposts for living. Yama translates as […]