#45: Ease.
Let is be easy, let it be fun, let it be fulfilling.
Most weeks I sit down at my computer on Monday morning with some inkling of what I want to say, but I am just getting back from vacation and my brain is feeling a little cloudy, stuck somewhere between vacation mode and home. Rather than force words onto the page, I decided to take a break, to unplug, to wait for my words to find me.
As someone who prides herself on my own ability to (almost) always put one foot in front of the other, these sluggish and slow days feel especially hard to navigate. I much prefer to have a plan, a set of steps, a clear direction. But I have learned that sometimes we need to slow down to speed up. The blank space (or in my case the blank page), is what allows us to eventually find our way.
I busied myself with other to-dos. I unpacked our suitcases, washed multiple loads of laundry, took myself outside for some fresh air, and even exercised. After what felt like hours away from my desk, my words still failed to appear, so I took myself to the grocery store, convinced that if I could check just one more thing off my to-do list, then my words would magically arrive as if by thin air.
I tried my best not to stress, as my own self-imposed writing deadlines can always be altered, but as the day slipped away and my razor thin margins disappeared, I could feel my own fear, my own self doubt creeping in. What if my own words never appeared? What if I had nothing left to say? What if writing was actually leading me astray?
As I pulled back into my driveway, roughly one hour before I was set to retrieve my kids, I felt one simple word appear; the word being ease. We live in a society that prides itself on hard work, on pushing and hustling and grinding, but this is not how I prefer to live my life and wrestling with my words or any of my work rarely works. Certain careers, including writing, have a reputation for being especially difficult, requiring a near constant drive. Social media teaches us that we must keep creating, keep posting, keep iterating, to stay relevant. Small business ownership often requires us to take 5 steps forward before taking another 10 back.
And yet, I much prefer to allow my ideas, my words, my desires to arrive in their own time. As I put away the groceries, I realized I didn’t have much that I wanted to say today, but that’s okay. I am choosing to honor that one simple word I heard, I am choosing ease.
How can you let more ease into your life? How can you ease your ideas forward rather than forcing them?
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