One of the most important things that I was trying to master in 2017 was taking things easy. I know, it’s easy to say, Don’t worry, don’t stress out but how are we supposed to take things easy, when there is not enough hours in the day & we are always running behind? Well, the answer is: you always have a choice how you react, so you might as well choose, to take things easy.
Busy+stressed or busy+calm?
I know, I know probably some of you already have an expression of disapproval on your faces and think Yeah, right Marlena, you live in Mauritius and have your own business. Surely you can take things easy but not me! And I’m here to tell you, my friend, that you are not quite right. I’m sorry to break this but EVERYONE think they are very busy. They think, they are definitely busier than you or me. The point is, this is not a competition. We all have important things to do, but we also have a free will to decide how we go about doing them. We can choose, if we want to stress out about them or take it easy.
You choose
We all have a freedom to choose. You are making lots of your own choices everyday. Even when you work a 9-5 job and have a boss who gives you a big to-do-list, you can choose what to do first. You can choose how to react to a rude client, you can ask yourself What do I feel like doing? and choose what to do next. These are all YOUR choices and unless you choose to abdicate this power to someone else (your boss, partner, mother, etc.), you are at cause in your own life.
Choose to listen to yourself
So what we can do with this freedom and how to use it? It’s all based on the concept of doing more with less energy. Again, some of you will say: From economic point of view it’s impossible. Maybe, but we are not a production line in a factory. We are human. Think about swimming with and against the current. You could cover a bigger distance with less energy when you are swimming with the current. The same is true when you do something with and against yourself.
If you get up after dinner and wash the dishes because you know ‘you have to’, it might take longer and will definitely be a less pleasant experience, than if you did the washing up after a short break, when you felt like it. When you do something, when you want to do it, it’s simply less painful. You swim with, not against the current.
Choose to take it easy
You can also, in all the above and other life situations, choose to take things easy. Everyday, I choose not to concentrate on the negative – because I know I’ll find only problems – but focus on the positive, to find solutions. I choose to listen to what I want to do first, than think of what I should do, to do more with less energy. I decide how I react to other people and their ‘stuff’, to protect my own balance. Those choices are helping me take my life easy. Not to stress out too much, worry about things I can’t control and moan about things I can’t change.
I like this easy living very much. When I manage to make these conscious choices, to take things easy, at the end of the day, I feel less exhausted and have so much more energy, to do things I like with my friends and family! Maybe you could try yourself?