Doing Without Trying

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and prepare for Grandson fun.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. Home projects

3. Plan for Nature-Culture flow

4. Creative visualization

1. Read "The Sweet Spot":

I'm reading this book by Christine Carter (2015), about "How to Find Your Groove". The thesis is that when we hit from our sweet spot we have optimum power and the greatest ease. "Being in our sweet spot is a felt sense; we know intuitively that everything is aligned. Our sweet spot doesn't require conscious thought; our unconscious mind tells us that we are there..."

Chapter 3 is Doing Without Trying, about forming habits. She goes into the biology: When we get tired our decision-making falters and we default to habits, which take no decision-making capacity - we just do them. "When a habit kicks in we, we act out a familiar behavior or feel a particular emotion reflexively, without any conscious thought." Sometimes that's good; sometimes not.

And habits are 95 percent of our thinking! Habits are in charge of most of our life - we only provide thoughtful direction when our habits have no conflicting desire. If we are skilled with our willpower, we can distract and coax our auto-control without a direct battle of wills (which willpower always loses). If we want to live with great ease and power we need to train our habits, not convince our willpower.

The next chapter is a "habit-crafting intensive." Since I'm working on simplicity and order this month, perhaps I'll practice with a very easy order habit: Whenever I leave a room, I'll put one or two things away where they belong.

 

2. Home projects:

We are trucking right along on our big renovation project. W has begun work on the back porch and both of my shelves are up. I'm mostly done with emptying the shed, and we will begin demolition soon!  

• M: Sort bins and piles, finish clearing the shed.
• T-W: Draw plans for new storage shed - what will fit? What size racks do we need? Order the shed.
• Th: Demo day. Reserve another truck.
• F: Demo day.
• S: Donate books

3. Plan for Nature-Culture flow:

I've got 4 areas for writing each week: Attention, Sanctuary, Natural Living, and Reciprocity, and then connected tasks to fit into my days:

• M: Write about and plan for supplies that won't pollute watershed
• T: Write about water awareness, watershed, water source + Earthcare News advocacy ideas and restoration work 
• W: Write about reciprocity, trout-friendly education and craftivism
• Th: Write about kid projects for Fall
• F: Write about Sanctuary + Plan a stormwater rain garden
• S: Plan a water-wise craftivism project

4. Visualization:

Every month, at the waxing gibbous moon (my last push for action), I call on the practice of visualization to help me to see the next steps towards bringing my goals to fruition.

Today I shine a light on our big home project, and picture what it will look like and feel like when it's finished.

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. (Because of my visual and auditory sensitivity, this is the best process for knowing what I'm feeling.) It has these steps: 

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• First, set an intention: Say, "Today I call on the Spirit of Love to bring me clarity and open my eyes to a vision of my exterior spaces in simple order and beauty." 
• Center and relax each part of my body: With each breath, allow my awareness to deepen and become softer. No stress. No rush. I walk or float in an imaginary void. Open a connection to Spirit. Feel a soft warmth begin to grow and spread through me, until I am radiating quiet energy.
• Create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached. Paint a vivid mental image of walking through my exterior spaces and seeing each thing in its proper place; and put as much positive energy into the image as possible. 
• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense: "Today I will take the next steps towards manifesting the yard spaces of my dreams."
• Give thanks and return: Saying thanks out loud is how I acknowledge the reality of the gift of my vision.

The thought-image is like a signal-flare that guides the physical thing or deed to manifest in my life (and it's a good way to keep my intentions in my mind). I will carry the vision of the completed goal with me, and focus on it often during the day, in a gentle manner.