Initially, I thought that I would follow my pattern from the last two months and just pick 12 things for the 12th month.
But then I realized that I didn’t actually feel like trying new things right now. Instead, I wanted to find a gentle rhythm for this month.
So kind of picked an overarching goal. Two actually…
The first thing I want is to feel more relaxed as the month goes on instead of feeling more and more pressured.
Achieving that goal starts with paying a bit more attention to the things I have taken on, what my role in those things should be, and, most importantly, to remember that I don’t have to be available every hour of every day. *
So, paying a bit more attention can help me keep my work and my tasks in perspective and to ensure they are better scaled to my time.
The other side of this goal is to actively choose activities that help me feel more relaxed, and less like I’m being bounced from task to task.
I’ve picked three for December – yoga, meditation, journaling.
And I’m going to do each of those three things 12 times this month.
In fact, since December started last week, I have already done 30 minutes of yoga three times, I’ve done 10 minutes of meditation twice, and I’ve done two 30 minute sessions of Yoga Nidra. I haven’t done a lot of journaling, but there’s still lots of time left this month.
The second thing I want for myself this month is to focus on having as much fun as I can.
My approach to this one is a bit harder to describe but basically, I am looking at each day’s to-do list and making sure that it includes something fun. It might be the smallest thing, but I’m still making sure it gets in there and I refuse to make it my lowest priority task.
If I come down to a choice between something fun and something that feels like a duty or an obligation, then I’ve been looking carefully at that duty/obligation to ensure it really needs to be done at this point in the day, in the week, in the month or if it needs to be done at all.
I have successfully eliminated several tasks this way and increased my fun dramatically.
And if I can’t eliminate an obligation, I have been trying to figure out ways to make it a bit more fun or interesting. I made myself some excellent tea to take with me to run errands. I saved an episode of my favourite podcast to listen to while cleaning the bathroom. You get the idea.
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I’m not saying that the first week or so of December has been stress-free or anything but things definitely feel better because I am paying attention, doing relaxation activities, and choosing to have more fun.
I wish you some ease and relaxation this month and I hope you don’t have to work too hard to find it.
*My ADHD is a HUGE factor in this. I have trouble assessing the scale of tasks and how long they will take, I struggle to know how much is ‘enough’ to contribute to a project, I lose track of how much time has passed or how long something has taken me to do, and I often want to respond to things right away so I don’t forget them. That latter thing often puts me on other people’s schedules instead of my own and that is NOT good for my brain.
PS – Now, I recognize that I am writing from a position of privilege here. I have sufficient control over my schedule, my finances, and my day-to-day tasks to enable me to take action to reduce my stress this way and that is not true for everyone. Please don’t take this post as ‘two simple tricks to make everything better’ – that’s not what I am aiming for.
