Life Piles Up January 3, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Life Balance, Mindfulness, Simplify Your Life.Tags: Distractions, Life Balance, Mindfulness, Simplify, Time
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Life piles up.
We must sort through the pile from time to time to identify priorities, dreams, hopes, and aspirations.
If we don’t clear out the clutter, the path becomes littered and overgrown with weeds.
Instead of seeing our way clear, distractions fill our field of vision.
Give the Universe room to work its magic.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Daily, I do it. Especially the junk mail
My e-mail is on the fritz . . . its absence has created much needed and appreciated S~P~A~C~E.
My brain gets like that sometimes!
Sometimes our “internal wheelbarrow” gets a bit top heavy. To reclaim life balance, we have to empty out the non-essential to make room for the essential.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Love that word-picture – “internal wheelbarrow’!
and top heavy is a great way to describe the problem. thank you!
Thanks, Karen. When I start to feel overwhelmed, I check to see how much stuff I’m carting around with me . . . and set aside what I can for “later.”
Lighter loads are more manageable.
I just got an email for clearing out the clutter on my computer, Nancy. I’m sure it’s well beyond time.
I cleared out some of the “clutter” on my computer . . . now I can’t access e-mail or FB from home. I expect that my computer woes are a “gift of gold in disguise.” FREE time for other pursuits.
Sometimes I feel like I’d need to sort for a week just to work my way down to the clutter!
Yes! Exactly. The pile gets so ponderous that the “clutter” becomes invisible at the bottom of a very T~A~L~L stack.
This is so true, Nancy! I felt that in this past week. I am fortunate to have the week between Christmas and New Year’s off from work and we had many “ideas” of things to do. But in the end, what we needed most was to spend lots and lots of time discussing what is important to us in 2013 and what we need to relinquish. We were weeding out and it felt so good! I do think we could use more than one weeding session a year, however!
Things pile up quickly!
Life is full of distractions . . . causing us to miss what matters. Stepping back to assess allows us to carve out S~P~A~C~E for our dreams.
Maybe the beginning of each month could be a signal to “tidy up” the extraneous to make room for the essential?
Abracadabra hocus pocus, Ahaa. I feel better already. Thank you.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could wave our magic wands, repeat a few magic word, and have life settle into the right blend and balance for HERE and NOW?
Yes, if only. Someone once lent me one. Turned out to be a flashlight. I didn’t have the heart to tell them different, after all they were but four years old. Maybe that is the secret.
Yes! The magic of imagination peaks when we are about four . . . then “school” and other conventional organizations step in to mold and shape us in a more uniform direction.
It’s up to us to reclaim the power of imagination . . . to be imagineers.
Question: Peaked or suppressed at age four?
I think about this quite bit for a host of reasons. I have heard of the idea that play peaks around the age of four or five when the conventions such as school kick in as you have mentioned. In my own mind I distinguish imagination and play as different but interrelated. So has the imagination truly peeked or has convention suppressed play and in around about way suppress the imagination.
I’m not sure I know the answer to that, but studies show that the indoctrination of school tends to correlate with a decrease in creative responses.
For example . . kids can come up with 101 uses for a paperclip. Adults, for the most part, cannot.
I did a post on this phenomenon . . . I’ll see if I can find the link.
Here’s the link:
http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/changing-education-paradigms/
I think they call it imaginary play for a good reason. Free, unstructured play is a great way to stimulate imagination. Left alone (no adult interference), play makes kids more creative. I see my kids (age 4 and 6) becoming more creative as they play together and grow older. They come up with scenarios and characters I couldn’t even conceive. But I have a feeling they’re not the exception than the norm. My son’s first grade teacher told me that she has lots of kids in her class who have absolutely no imagination. She said teachers used to see it in higher grades but it’s been happening earlier (she blames it on computer games where kids have to choose between answers, not come up with one on their own). Kids will be given a theme for their writing evey day and they will have no idea what to write about. It’s not just sad, it’s shocking. And I don’t blame the teachers and the school completely for this (they have so many hours a day to teach the essentials, and no room for anything else, unfortunately), but mostly the parents. Parents who plop their kids in front of the babysitting TV, don’t read any books with their kids and don’t encourage them to read, think kids learn more from kid apps than human interaction. It’s really sad, especially since innovation and creativity is what the US economy needs so dearly and can’t find anywhere. Sorry for the rant, this is an issue close to my heart…
I agree with you . . . parents who place the blame on schools need to take a look in the mirror, turn off the TV, take away the video games, and tell kids to go outside and PLAY.
I like rants, especially this type, well said, I see it more as questioning than ranting to be truthful Innovation and creativity is a commodity in short supply worldwide. Which leads to the question can creativity be taught? I think so if taught is the correct, perhaps fostered is better, but it is challenge as tunnel vision seems to lurk behind every wall.
Good thoughts, HH. I expect that fostered is a better word choice. When we encourage creativity, it knows no bounds.
But it is so easily discouraged and buried when Ego is encouraged to conform to the norm.
I nurture my kids’ creativity. Just like a flower, it will flourish in the right environment and die if starved or neglected. I also agree with the sad fact that confirming with the norm is a curiosity killer. This is definitely something I will fight for when it comes to my kids. They need to learn that being unique is how they were born and how they should live.
Good luck with that, Milka. Keep their creativity ALIVE!
I too do it regularly, but never enough.
I’ve been “simplifying” my life for 15 years . . . and it seems just as complicated and congested as ever. Time for some REAL changes. I need to carve out S~P~A~C~E for what matters.
What better time for clearing out clutter than the opening of a New Year.
Exactly my thought, NC. This is a wonderful time for “new beginnings” especially if we bring mindful balance to the task.
Yepp – It’s definitely Office Clean / Spring Clean Time… Get some space to think and build anew
I’m giving my writing nook a bit of an overhaul . . . the creative juices are flowing.
Yes! I officially have cut down my involvement in Facebook at the end of 2012, and made a post announcing this. As beautiful as my page is, I need time for myself, to pursue my spiritual work, business ideas and start writing a second book. I will doing more and more clearing up.
That sounds like a great plan, Marie. Here’s to clarity!
Excellent analogy, Nancy. I really need to do this
Thanks, Dianne. Clutter-free pathways increase the odds that we will see our “next best step.”
I’ve spent the week clearing out spaces in files, computers, table tops,drawers…and best of all…the mind…what a relief to have more space! (but soooo much work to do most of that…)
Yay, you! While my computer is getting detoxified, I plan to so the same with my physical environs.
Great post! I’m working on de-cluttering (both literally and figuratively.) In the process of clearing out some desk space, my email In box has become cluttered (it’s like a see-saw.)
My computer is gone on a cyber sojourn to the computer shop. Until it gets back, I’ll have all sorts of FREE time to clean paper files.