Do One Thing At A Time…Duh

Today on my Facebook Page I posted an update. Here’s part of it:

TODAY: do one thing at a time, fully.

no multitasking in any way
this includes things like:

listening to something while you wash dishes,
watching tv and browsing on your iOS device,
standing in line and checking facebook,
walking and talking on the phone,
doing work online and checking social media

This whole thing was fertilized by the perfect email that I received from a woman that I’ve been admiring from afar for a while. She wrote a killer blog post with the answer to a question that I kid you not I was asking myself just moments before!

Crazy how that happens….

Her answer is different than the answer that I received.

As it should be.

We are different people.

We have different needs.

We have different circumstances.

Here is the comment that I left for her:

Well sweet Sara, you’ve challenged me. I’m walking around my house right now feeling in that state of overwhelm. Totally detached and attached at the same time. Tears of frustration ready to burst. I need space. Quiet. A moment. My mind explodes with ideas of how to “fix this”, and at the same time refuses to do just one thing at a time as multi-tasking has become the most comfortable place to escape.

I know better.

I’ve been practicing yoga and all it’s fruits and labors (meditation, prayer, ayurveda, et al) for over 10 years and I feel like a total newbie.

Motherhood has really “brought it” if you will 😉

Day 4 of both my girls 3.5 yrs and 7 months having a cold that is not letting anyone sleep nor anyone aka me have a single moment of separation, which I do very much crave.

Financial strains are giving me pangs of anxiety the moment I forget to breathe. My deepest frustration is that I know what needs to be done and I simply cannot do it. The immediacy of motherhood requires more of me, and my lack of organization has now really bit me HARD.

As I look at the sheer destruction which is my teeny loft right now, my brow is furrowed. My body feels tight, especially in my heart. My patience is NONE. My voice is sharp. My desire is to make everyone feel as miserable as I feel.

I don’t want to project all this onto my little ones.

I’ll ask that which you suggested.

I had been asking THAT EXACT SAME QUESTION as I stumbled around cleaning up, literally 5 minutes ago, not only for myself but for my family and also for my students and those that come to me for advice/help.

At this moment before I stumbled upon your email/post I had gotten an answer “do one thing at a time, fully.” so there you have it.

do one thing at a time, fully

thank you sara, you helped me remember….

There you have it.

It’s becoming more and more clear to me how the way that I’m actively partitioning my mind/heart/body by attempting to do it all at once, is in no way serving me AT ALL.

In fact, the more I do it, the more disconnected I get, and the more fuel is added to feelings of frustration and anger.

Anger.

THAT is a new one for me…I usually live in the anxiety/fear place when I get all out of whack 😉

Today I began to do one thing at a time.

I did begin.

And I was schooled very quickly by my deeply ingrained mind habits.

I will not let this stop me, as I encountered some pretty amazing sparkles of ease, within the rest of the discomfort.

By no means did I fully achieve what I set out to do today.

But I took action.

And I will take action tomorrow.

Do one thing at a time, fully.

Now it’s your turn.

Do you think you can take action as well? I’d love to hear from you as this whole life thing works out better when we share 🙂

Tagged as: everyday insight, stress relief, tools for stress relief