At the start of this week, I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed. It was my solar calendar birthday and I began to review the past year. Monday was also the start of the new month, the month of Iyar, which is an acronym for, “I am G‑d your Healer” (אני י‑י רפאך), indicating that Iyar is a propitious time for healing. I got up early to meditate and then drive uptown to join the community for Rosh Chodesh service, the service for the new month.
In that time, various things had piled up in my my head and my to-do list. To sort through this mess, there are a few things I will do that help me zoom out and focus on the positives - because there’s always positives and things to be grateful for even when, and especially when, it doesn’t feel so.
1 - Mind Maps
Whenever there seems to be a lot on my plate, I capture it - all of it - on paper, or in my journal. In the middle circle with which everything branches out from, I write on the mind of Solomon and the extensions are of projects in work, creations, things to do or learn, and pretty much everything my attention is on . By doing this I can now see everything in one place, one one page, and it’s almost like I am above it all.
Ask: where is your attention/energy going?
2 - The One thing
Then, with everything on paper, I ask a simple but incredibly effective question:
What’s the one thing I can do that If I accomplish it, everything else will pretty much fall into place?
On the basis of a day, you can ask, “what’s the one thing I can do today that’ll take the largest load off my shoulders?”
There are other articles on productivity addressing this question or similar questions, but the reason I like doing it after seeing everything on a mind map is because it’s not just looking at one thing I can do today, but the one thing that will generate the most momentum for that day and the other things.
In other words, it is like an overriding goal that I learned when doing the Lifebook Mindvalley Quest. If someone has goals for their health, career, relationships, personal development, intellect, and so on, asking the one thing is determining which goal is most important that will best assist in accomplishing the other goals.
3 - Celebrate and Live as if it’s accomplished
Got a lot on your mind? A lot of to-do’s? How do you respond to situations when you just feel - permission to speak freely - like crap?
Ask: How would you behave and act if it were all accomplished? Then generate that elevated emotion by focusing on gratitude and joy. Similar to how we learned last week to live as if you left Egypt.
I’d love to hear from you - write your comments below and let me know :)