At the Beginning…

…there was cheesecake.

Kidding!

Whenever I have started something new in the past, I have always gone ‘whole hog’. Be it a new diet, a new exercise regime or even a new job. Little stops just weren’t for me. Five minutes of walking? Start with five minutes? Pfft. Why start there when I can start with an hour (and end up hurting ankles, knees, hips, whatever). Cut bread out of the dinner meal? Nah. I’ll cut it out of every meal.

Even in my writing, I’ve never been one to sit down and write give minutes here and there. If I can’t settle in for a good amount of writing time, I don’t want to do it.

Life isn’t like that, though. Even when we do plan out large chunks of time to do certain things, other things come up. Other things get in the way. Plans change.

So instead of jumping into things with lists and schedules, tables and time slots, I am taking things calmly and slowly.

At the moment, I am focusing on the Buddhist staple that everything changes. The idea is that if you learn to accept that everything changes – even within a moment – then you will learn to let go. It is through holding onto things – like people, negative emotions, bad situations – that we bring fear and pain into our lives. If we can step back and let go enough to observe the changes, we will start to find peace.

Right now I am at the very beginning in that I am trying to be mindful of everything that changes. It has helped me to tune into my body and what stresses me. For instance, I went into my emails this morning to start work and my breathing became faster like I was starting to panic.

How many mornings has this happened without me noticing and thus working through the morning in a panic state?

So what’s the saying… ‘Keep calm and carry on’?