Day 140/366 days Towards Self-Mastery
Sarah's inspiration for today is called "scrambled or fried". I simply love this analogy as she weaves the story of being so overwhelmed with life that she fantasises about buying a one-way bus ticket to an out of the way country town. Here she imagines that she will take a job in a local cafe where the only responsibility she has is to ask her customers if they prefer their eggs scrambled or fried.
Have you ever found yourself so overwhelmed with responsibilities that you feel like heading for the hills?
As I write I'm reflecting on the mountain of responsibilities that I had shouldered for way too long, and the light weight delight of having shifted out from under that burden.
It wasn't the responsibilities that urged me to step into my walking shoes and head in one direction. It was the sheer boredom and monotony of a life filled with responsibilities that repeated themselves like groundhog day, day after day after day.
With the best intentions, the boredom outweighed the pleasure of 365 days x 20 years of child-raising as the main focus of my life. Of course I had to attend to my business to keep us afloat, but outside of that there was little to stimulate me by way of intelligent conversation with other adults, connection with family was non-existent, and at my age, most of my friends were virtually child-free whilst I was sporting a 5 year old.
There's pleasure to be had in gardening for sure, however soccer Saturdays and sailing Sundays were routines that initially broke the monotony, then became the monotony.
My dream of donning my walking shoes and heading off comes and goes. With almost careless abandon, I imagine walking until I stop, with little consideration for weather, shelter or food, sore feet or company. When I begin to think of those more practical aspects the plan dissolves, to reemerge another day.
We have to learn when enough is enough. We have to learn to protect our mental health. There's no better way to do that than to simplify your life. Off load as much responsibility as is practicable, lighten the load. Reduce debt, declutter, live simply.
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.
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