I had this thought the other day. Our thoughts are just thoughts. They are not our responsibility; but what we do with them, is. Do we choose to identify? Do we hold on? Do we let them go, and fall away to the earth to be absorbed and transformed into whatever may be needed?
And for some guidance on moving past them, and transmuted them, I highly recommend Byron Katie’s Four Liberating Questions.
I think there is often a sweet little duality in life where we’re meant to learn one side of a lesson in one moment, and in the next, the other side.
For example, my time has been more occupied than usual, than feels like equilibrium, lately. And that’s OK, because it’s temporary, and mostly because of a very fun trip, two-week trip with close friends I have at the end of this week. I find myself trending toward over-programming, to trying to do more, to pushing too much. So, instead, I keep saying to myself, and committing to myself: Do one less thing. Take off this layer, give some space, let that go.
In other moments, like times when I’ve felt stuck, or it’s felt hard to move, or do, and I know I want to, that it would be good for me, it’s a simple as: Do one more thing. Like, do this one thing.
Do one less thing (exhale).
Do one more thing (inhale).
Sometimes I think life is a rotation between the two sides of the same advice coin, a back-and-forth flip that is sometimes quick, like both in one day, and, other times, we’re on the same side for some time. Before, it was Do this one thing. Right now, it’s: Do one less thing.
Do one less thing, make one less plan, make one choice less, say one less thing, deliberate one time less. There’s a peace that comes in granting that, I’ve found. A space for settling, and for something to naturally shift.
Do something because you want to, not because of what you expect in return, or because you expect something, anything, as a result. In that way, in this manner, it can only ever be positive. You are doing what you want, for the joy of it. This is mom advice (advice from my mom) that came through over the years in a simple moment It continues to reveal, reorient and simplify in all it touches in my life.
Orient toward the action, for the joy and the purity of the action, rather than the outcome. And whatever comes, will come, and it will be welcome.
For Mom who has done many things…