I think humans are great at overlooking the obvious. It's the blindspots of life that will get ya, every time. I see what I want to see and ignore what is also there but uncomfortable to acknowledge.
Enter: friendships. Enter: marriage. Enter: parenting. Enter: neighbors and co-workers.
God uses these relationships to help us grow and I am glad.
Another thing He uses is our active engagement in WANTING to grow. And this desire is supported by specific things like:
Journaling
Prayer
Meditation
Reading
Silence
When we do these things, obviously, no one can do them for us. I mean, it's just not something you can outsource. These days you can outsource a pregnancy if you're rich enough. But no one can do the work of humbling yourself into these postures willingly.
Willingly.
I actually sat down to write this morning about finding moments of FLOW in your week. I have been on the hot hunt for flow for a while now. I realize I get these moments when I am putting in effort and it's taking all my concentration, and no one is interrupting me. Time stands still, I am just doing the one thing I'm doing, and it's wonderful!
How do you find flow in your life? I know I find it from long runs, writing, yoga, hiking, making music, long drives, and cooking or baking in the right situation (kids playing happily in the background for instance.)
I'm actively hunting for two two-hour chunks of this kind of activity each week, and it takes all my effort to get that and even then, it may just be once and not twice. But something I'm learning is that by dialing down my focus on finding that flow state, I can get it in smaller bits by not multi-tasking. It looks like:
I have 20 minutes to whip out muffins- so there is no podcast in the background. I just zone in and bake those muffins. And voila! I emerge refreshed. Wha? How?
I have ten minutes? I sit down and write a blog post. I emerge refreshed! It's much better than just scrolling along Instagram. Even if no one reads what I wrote, I feel like I got something injected in my brain, some stillness. It's the blessing of creativity!
Probably the most important words I wrote this morning as a take-away are STOP MULTITASKING.
I am preaching to myself today.
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