ARTIST
11 am is a guideline, I have to remind myself. That’s the time that came to me when I got the flash of inspiration to blog everyday. Try to get it done by 11am each day. That can be your container.
I dance between play this game with myself of giving constraints, and then breaking them. The thing I’m trying to work on is giving constraints that I can build into habits. After it becomes habitual, I can decide occasionally not to follow my own rules.
This whole idea to blog everyday has collected up and burst out of me FINALLY—after years of off-and-on blogging (*raise your hand if you were here for blogspot once.).
The blog idea came on the same day that I created a really cool system “out of nowhere.” I was so frustrated with having all the things I wanted to do in my lifetime living in my head. I had to get them all out, physically out, and organize them somehow. That way, I could assure myself that everything I want to do in my life will indeed get done in some semblance of Time.
So! I came up with this flashcard exorcism:
I swiftly wrote down everything I could think of that I wanted to do in my life. After this step, I placed them in two categories: What do I want in this phase? and Not Now, Thank you (sidenote: the “thank you” is genuine gratitude for the birth of the idea, and an honoring of my desires. I want them to come back later, so I thank them!).
This exorcise worked like magic. Afterward, I was able to fully commit to my blogging project and lots of anxiety and mental chatter was reduced.
Ideas have life. Consciousness, even. And they want attention. Giving it to them really freed me.
LIFE
This is where I have to thank Michelle Obama for her brilliance. Michelle helped me create this flashcard game, as it was partly inspired by something she said at the United State of Women this summer.
It was something to the effect of, “this part of my life (first lady) is just a phase. Life is a series of phases…”
CLICK!
Hearing that statement lit a spark inside of me. You know those? That word, phase, was a curse-lifting five-letter gift.
If life is a series of phases, a series of different versions of us with different focuses, and “life is long” (another curse-lifting gift from Michelle), then the important thing is to find the organizing principles for this phase and then go full throttle.
I like Michelle Obama’s perspective on the length of Life. Her perspective is working for her—you can hear it in her voice, see it in her smile, and omg her skin. Time. Less.
LIFE/STYLE
This is the commitment I have on my altar this week (language courtesy of the Moondeck):
Erykah Badu says it’s important to keep your altar updated, and I agree: Keep it updated and stay in communion with it. The notecards I made, now that I think about it, are a part of my altar update. Getting things out of your head and physically writing them down is itself an altar. So, when you write them down and you organize them into what you want now and what you want later, you’ve just updated your altar. You’re clear, so now your prayers can be, too.
Same case for updating a wardrobe, a pantry, some paperwork…
The things you keep in your life are your altar and they communicate the prayers of your heart.