This morning I woke up having done ‘nothing’ all weekend!
Then while sat in front of my computer while having a chat with Victoria my PA (as we always do on a Monday morning) I became aware of the ridiculous amount of information I had to process. Tabs on my laptop, emails in my inbox, Facebook messages, WhatsApp messages, lists of things to do, people to contact, tasks in my Gmail browser window, paper in my in tray, things in my journal, on my wall, my phone, Instatwat… you name it! Is there no end?!
This is not normal. Never in the history of humankind have we ever been so overwhelmed with so much information and so many things to organise and process. And I don’t even have kids!
While life can be complex and overwhelming there is a deceptively simple answer.
Filtering.
We cannot not filter. Like a sieve, we are always filtering what we pay attention to. Some of us have good sieves, some bad and some downright ugly!
The key is to recognise that we filter and when we’re feeling overwhelmed it’s because we’re not filtering very well.
We’ve organised our thinking/ to do/ life/ phone and so on in a way that is creating the stress. So, time to re-organise and filter in a different way. How?
Breath!
Being aware of our breath is by far the fastest and most effective way of coming back to the present moment, back to ourselves. It is the only thing we really need in this moment to be alive. And if you don’t believe that, try to stop breathing for a few minutes!
From being present with ourselves we can do the following:
- Stay present – continue to be present with the speed of your breath (lived experience) rather than your thinking (imagined ‘reality’)
- Listen to your intuition
- Ask what’s most important here and how
- Categorise
- Start
- Get in flow
- Delegate and ask for help
- Chunk up and down
- Chill out!
Love, Tristan
