I've got to clear my to do list. I'll feel bad if I don't. No scrap that. I'll feel like a failure, mmm wow the word written down looks so strong, so final, so negative.
It's true though, there is something very compelling that says I have to clear the to do list. I have to keep busy, to move forward to feel a sense of achievement. Although in reality I'm not sure what that sense of achievement is anymore.
"Sometimes I just want to sit quietly, to not pay attention to the mind chatter but really sit quietly. To notice my heart beating. To notice my breath. To notice and really feel a sense of stillness, a pause, a chance to 'just be'."
Everything we are and do is a choice
Then it hits me - the only person that can let that happen is me. I can make that CHOICE. Choose that alternative perspective and learn to tame the mind chatter, switch it off even and become present to a moment of calm and peacefulness. From here I know that anything is possible, that there's a sense of freedom, of space of truth where I can really take a few moments to breathe, pause and ask myself what's really going on.
"So I do just that. Breathe deeply, inhaling confidence and exhaling self doubt."
From here, I feel relaxed, yet strong and in control.
I am able to make choices, to see things for what they really are. To gain perspective and realise that the to do list will still be there tomorrow with something else on it and right now I ask myself - what really matters? To me? In this moment of time? And I realise I do. My self care matters.
My chance to make choices, to give myself permission to appreciate what I have achieved today rather than what I haven't. From this place of gratitude I sit taller, shoulders back, head up eyes looking forward. I feel awake, alive and then I realise I'm smiling.
You see today has been great
I've engaged in activities which make my heart feel alive, that align with my values. I recognise that actually the things left on the to do list from this place of fulfilment don't matter in the greater scheme of things. They can wait. Then it strikes me - the alternative perspective I'm in right now is called 'Ta-dah'. Yes, that's right you read it correctly. It's about changing the negativity of trawling through an endless to do list at the end of the day and replacing it with a ta-dah list that allows me to:
"Celebrate what I have achieved and remind myself I am enough."
A positive mindset
With over 60.000 thoughts a day the more we connect with a positive mindset the more we strengthen the pathways to our brains which deal with perspective. Research also suggests that having a more positive mindset supports both physical and mental wellbeing.
Think back to when you last felt you'd let yourself down by not clearing your to-do list. How did it make you feel? And what impact did that have on you? Those around you? And your mindset the following day? Go on, be really honest with yourself. How did it really make you feel?
So I ask you 'what would it be like to change your to-do lists' to 'ta-dah' lists and end each day with a celebration of everything you have achieved?
What could that bring you? What's possible from here and who are you becoming from this place of possibility?
Go on, take a moment to just breathe. The possibilities are endless...