Having been away on a retreat the last few days, I came back to things that needed to be done. Coaching calls, an enrolment call, accounts to be sorted, date with the gym, dinner with a friend, an article to write, kids to spend time with, a laptop to get fixed, a husband to re-connect with, a diary to be scheduled, online coaching responses to be thought through and responded to, countless emails and messages, school projects to catch up on – plus general day to day stuff that happens in a family of 4.
I had had a thought a few days before about the concept of being busy. It’s something that is talked about so often – to the point of ownership….
I’M BUSY.
My thought was – is it actually possible to be busy?
The truth is, it’s only possible to do one thing at a time (ok, I realise there are exceptions you multi-tasking mum’s out there), but essentially when I am on a call, I am on a call. When I am with a friend for dinner I am with a friend. When I’m writing an article I’m writing an article. While procrastinating writing an article on Facebook I’m procrastinating on Facebook.
So if we are only doing one thing at a time, we are actually not busy.
It’s our mind that is busy – thinking about all the other things we need to do whilst doing the one thing.
What would happen if we never said I’m so busy and changed it up to I have a busy mind?
Then when you realise you mind is a collection of thoughts, not real tasks, the possibility is there to let them float on by.
I’m not saying it’s easy, but dealing with a busy mind is a different ball game to trying to ‘change’ a busy person.
Of course, meditation is a great tool for this. My personal experience though has been that even by just noticing that is all that is going on,I seem to be able to breathe a little easier and get on with the ONE thing in front of me.
