"Keep it simple, keep it slow and light". I keep reminding this to myself so that I don't get overwhelmed by the endless list of to-do things and the endless list of bills and stuff that I need to deal with. I was already trying to sort things out when I saw the question of the wonderful and always interesting The Minimalist community about Emotional well-being and I thought I should grab the chance and write down my thoughts and see if this will make things more clear. Sharing always helps.
I consider myself lucky living in a beautiful place that can definitely make things feel lighter and make my days brighter. All the photos that accompany this post are from today's dog walk in one of my favorite routes. One of my ways to take care of me (and my dog).
I am blessed with a body that manifests emotions in a very direct way. This used to bother me when I was young, but at some point I realized just how lucky I am having such a helpful, straightforward partner. Heart beats, sweating hands, tense muscles, tense jaw, butterflies in the stomach to low fever, pain and autoimmunity. I have learnt, and keep learning, to pay attention to anything my body says, cause it never lies. The mind can lie, but the body will never do.
So, I know that what I need to do is to ask myself and notice how my body feels. Is it tight? Not a good choice. Is it relaxed and happy? Go for it. This is my way to understand my boundaries. My body is great at talking, I am good at listening, but not always good at following the path :) That would make things easy and that would be boring, right? I wish I could be consistent to my own pace.
Slowness is a great recipe for everything in life, as I read somewhere recently. And I try not to forget: keep it nice and slow. And when it gets too much, take a step back. Which brings us to my current state. I have made a huge change in my life by moving to another place and a big step by starting my own business. It was so overwhelming that I needed to take a good step back on everything. Social media, world's expectations, deadlines. It all comes with a cost, but hey, feeling free is worth any price!
Let me tell you that being free, or trying to be free, is hard work. Hard inner work. To be true to yourself, to be around people (colleagues and clients included) that make you feel good, to work on your projects putting your heart and soul into it without caring what others will say, having a space that fulfills your creativity without it being fancy as people might expect but just made with care, taking all the time you need even though everyone is expecting to see something from you, having free time, resting well and trying to maybe do something nice in this world. This is hard work. And when I lose track, I try to get back to how my body feels, take a nice walk, play with my dog, eat something nice, have a hot cacao or a good dance. Music, nature and taking a step back. I guess this is what I do. I just keep it simple. And I have to remind myself that we are all guests here and we have to be nice to this planet, to each other and to ourselves. Accept my emotions, it is what it is and all I have to do is to focus on my power.
Thanks for the chance to write it all down, it feels good :)
PS. The title is from the song Power by the amazing Ren. Listening to his music works like a healing.
If you would like to know more about me this is my introduction post.