Bodylearning

I’m back after one week in Malta where my main activity was focusing on 3 projects: writing the structure of my book, reading Bruno Latour and organizing an event. The schedule I created for myself worked just perfectly: starting every day with a walk until the beach, having a swim in the cool water, back at the hotel, breakfast and then starting to “work”. It amazed me how being away from the daily life AND having a clear focus made me experience the difference between what is important and what is urgent. Even if I had my computer with me, I could easily retain myself from controlling every e-mail coming in.

I guess I’m not alone to behave as if many things are urgent, just because they make us react: e-mails, posts, news, … When we consider them with a calm mind, we realize easily that in fact we confuse what is important with what we perceive as urgent. And by spending a lot of time dealing with what we feel is urgent, we end up neglecting what is important.

Nowadays, it is actually quite easy to create a sense of urgency: it is sufficient to be exposed to many stimuli with an emotional content – excitement, fear, expectation, etc – like e-mails, FB, Instagram and twitter do. Add to that only little physical movement, and have a daily to do list. Here we go: the stress response takes over and we start to give a lot of our time to what we believe is urgent and we forget about what is important to us.
We loose then the overview of the sense of our activities: what is actually important for me ? Why am I doing all this?

How to go out of that, without taking a week off in a beautiful island?

• At least once per day, sit quietly and in silence for 5 minutes while you are enjoying a tea or a coffee
• Train physically: walk 30 min every day.
• Eat without having your smartphone on the table or other screens in front of you. Enjoy your food and / or the people with you.

Those 3 practices will help you to train a state of little – or even no – excitement in your mind. When you feel this calmness, start to reflect on “ what is actually important for me?” and “do I dedicate enough time to what is important for me?”.

The last recommendation will maybe surprise you 🙂 Give time to what “urgent” is. This part of us also needs our attention. Give to it some time every day, 1-2 hours but not more. When the sense of urgency receives enough time it doesn’t need to take over what is important!

Picture of Michelle Sabatini

I am reading an extremely interesting book written by Bruno Latour, a French philosopher. He explores the topic of why it is so difficult for us, for our societies, to shift our mindset about how we consume… our planet. I have to admit that the content of this book is intense and sometimes difficult to completely follow. But he proposes many considerations that fascinate and inspire me. I would like to share one of them with you.
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You are probably familiar with the positive effect that a nice and a supportive word can have on you when someone gives you a compliment  or recognition for a certain action you did or gives you encouragement in a difficult moment …
Words can make a huge difference on you, on your day and to others.
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Have you already experienced that some tasks become, after a while, an obligation, although you started them with pleasure? How does it happen that you can start something full-hearted and end up being stressed and annoyed?

Let’s draw an imaginary line where “obligations and duties” are at one end and “pleasures and accomplishments” to the other end. Our perception moves along this line: when it approaches the “obligations and duties” side, very often repetitions are spoiling our experience.
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