Recently I’ve been noticing how much “noise” there is in my life and how distracting it was becoming, and so I made some hard decisions to see what unplugging looks and feels like for me.
Casper ter Kuile’s book, The Power of Ritual, has caused some internal stirring to happen and I’ve been curious about what it would be like to live from a more intentional, meaningful way with an awareness of what I’m putting into myself and what is coming out.
And I’ve found that when I come home to myself and give myself attention and compassion, I light up, I get jazzed about life, and my creativity and passion soars.
So, I took a stand for myself and reclaimed my time and energy.
I deactivated my Instagram account and took 10 hours to be in stillness – no technology, no books, no music – just me and a 1000 piece puzzle.
Those 10 hours were amazing and time did not exist. I recognize that not every weekend will afford me this much time to be quiet. And yet I’m so grateful.
I ate when I felt hungry. I walked the dog when he needed to be attended to. And I poured myself into the puzzle.
As time went on I saw life unfolding.
At first it was all a big pile of one thousand pieces that needed to be dealt with. I started pulling out the edge pieces, and then noticed all the different colours come together – greens to the left, whites and yellows in the upper corner, blues up top, oranges over to the right along with a huge pile of pinks, with all the other pieces going into a box.
Just getting all the bits and pieces sorted was in itself satisfying.
I then laid out all the edges to create the framework and to see the size of it come to life. The orange bits got placed first because they seemed to be the easiest, followed by the pieces with geometrical shapes from the buildings.
Before long the emptiness began to fill in.
Like in life, I just went for it. I persevered and was determined to be present, in the moment, and to let the experience take me on a ride.
It started with unplugging and getting intentional on what I wanted.
At first it felt daunting to wade through all those random pieces and figure out where to begin, but before long, what felt manageable fell into place first. As time went on, the harder bits, which at first felt so overwhelming, also found where they belonged.
We sometimes get overwhelmed by the bigness of life, or a relationship, or a project, or change, and we don’t know where to begin or how to get started. We’re not clear on what matters – to me.
I’ve noticed through my own life’s experiences and through witnessing others, that the first choice – to just do it and why – is often the most critical. Once we get going it’s amazing how all the bits and pieces come into play and everything seems to find its way.
Once the ground work is done, the gears are in motion, and confidence builds, the hard uncertain bits seem to be less daunting and we notice that we can manage them as well.
I hope to continue on this path of reclaiming time for myself on the weekends – to detach and unplug from what pulls me away from myself.
I may just claim a part of the dining room table and have a puzzle out.
A reminder to just do it – because I matter!
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