Tag Archives: action

Daily Intention: Be Brave in the Face of Time.

8 May

So this is an admittedly dramatic title, for an intention that, in practice, may not be a big deal to most people.  I’ve never heard anyone talk about their relationship to time in the way that I often experience it.  Not only with lament to it’s seemingly swift passing… but with trepidation towards spending the pockets of free time when I do have them.  I sometimes get stuck, almost afraid to allocate my time to larger activities or projects, to an extent where I avoid doing things that I want or need to do, simply because of the amount of time I think it will take up in my day.

My moments of alone time are fleeting.  Few, far between, and not very long.  And they’re precious to me.  Because I’m one of those people who needs that alone time to recharge.  But I place so much importance on that time… that I end up putting myself through more agony than necessary committing that time to any particular activity.  And sometimes I end up avoiding the things that will be beneficial to me, because they will take up a huge chunk of that time I get during one of Mason’s naps.  And I know the next chunk of time won’t come for another couple of hours.  And that there are only three of these chunks in a day.

I wimp out in the face of time.  All too often.  And spend it doing smaller things, that make less of a difference to me in the long run.

So my intention today, is to not be intimidated by time.  To do the things I want and need to do in the time that I have, and trust that they will be the things that rejuvinate me.

Does anyone else have this kind of hang up about time?  I’d love to know if I’m not alone in this.

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Daily Intention: Be in Action

3 May

((So I didn’t check off everything on my finishing list yesterday.  But because of the things I did do… I walked into the living room this morning, and felt like I could finally breathe in there.  Thanks to my newly freed space.))

Be in action… is not necessarily how it sounds.  I don’t plan to be a hyper productive, task oriented ball of constantly moving energy today.

I’m reading this book by Osho called “Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within” (Insights for a New Way of Living).  I love this way of looking at creativity, because it’s not talking about just creativity in making art… but in living life.  In the first chapter, he makes a distinction between action and activity.  It rings so true for me and I know I’ve written about something similar before here.

He says that activity is compulsive.  Has almost a mindless, thoughtless quality to it.  Where you move from task to task, event to event, activity to activity without premeditation.  This includes productive things, this includes “relaxing” things.  For instance; going from putting the baby down for a nap, to warming up soup, to eating & writing simultaneously, to watching a show, to making tea… one right after the other, sometimes multiple things at one time.  Not really giving each activity your full attention because you’re thinking of what’s going to come next.  As if remaining in activity is more important than the activity itself.

But in action, action arises out of a need.  You are hungry, so you eat.  Your body aches, so you stretch.  You notice that the plants need watering, so you grab the hose.  You feel the urge to draw… so you do.  Action has a spontaneity and a thoughtfulness to it, rather than a compulsiveness.  So that’s my intention today.  To remain in action.  It’s only 8:30am… and it’s already causing me a little anxiety to be stripped of activity for the sake of activity.  Interesting, huh?

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