What has been your experience with tidying up a corner of your house or office? Please, reflect back now. Have you been thinking as you’ve tidied up,
“This is sure taking a lot of time. I’d much rather be doing A or B or C.”
Perhaps you were thinking,
“Is this really something that’s going to help? I could really differ this particular activity until tomorrow.”
Have you thought as you’ve been tidying up,
“Oh, I really need to go and do that other, important task that I promised myself I would do right now.”
In other words, as you were attending to the challenge of tidying up, were you actually living in the future or the past and not in the present? Were you actually not attentive to the experience of what it means to put everything back in its proper place?
The challenge of the week is to invite you to reflect on your reactions doing something that you typically would not do. There is, however, a deeper and much more profound implication to this particular assignment.
Our egos are extremely effective at sabotaging our intent to get well. We have all sorts of rationales that we use for why we should not attend to doing what it is that we well-know will help us feel significantly better.
How many times have you said,
“Yes, yes I know I need to exercise today. I know I’ll feel better but I just don’t feel up to it.”
How many times have you said that to yourself? My hand is raised. I use that rationale all the time. Or how about,
“Oh, I really should go out for a walk but it’s drizzling outside. I don’t want to walk in the rain. It might make me sick.”
You see, we have very intricate and extensive rationales that we use for why it is that we cannot attend to the tasks and the duties that we know will help us feel better.
How about eating well? How many times have you said,
“Well, I don’t feel like eating that fresh, live food today. I think I’d much rather have steak, potatoes and macaroni and cheese.”
Yes, that is yummy food for the stomach. For some people it is comfort food. But is it really going to help you feel better? You know the answer.
“No, I’m not going to feel better if I eat those foods.”
The challenge then is to simply acknowledge when we offer to ourselves those seemingly rational reasons why we should not be doing what it is that we know is in our best and highest good. We really do know what we need to do to feel better. We really do know what we need to do to help ourselves reverse symptoms. Yet, we continue into the same rut of habits that undo our ability to recover and become symptom-free.
Becoming mindful then of physical tasks is a golden opportunity to transfer those same rationales over to our decision-making moment to moment about what we can do for ourselves. One common rationale is to say
“I have to work. I have to make money. I really don’t have time to be able to go to these appointments with these health care providers.”
Does that rationale sound familiar to you? You see, it is the same as deciding you need to leave the dishes in the sink.
Enjoy then, continuing your assignment and accepting the challenge to become totally and completely mindful of tidying up. When you tidy up that sink, when you tidy up that bathroom or whatever corner of the house you’ve chosen to focus on, you actually transfer the same skill set over to being able to assure that you will be tidying up all of the imbalances that are currently present in your body.
It’s an approach that is positive.
- It will guarantee that a strong life force will begin to flow through every cell of your body.
- It will ensure that you are focused on the moment.
- It will guarantee that you will act on the intuitions that you have about what is necessary to begin feeling better.
Have fun as you continue tidying up that corner of the house that has been full of clutter for all too long.
Robert
© Parkinsons Recovery