How much of what happens to us and the stress we are under, is caused by self-fulfilling prophecies? I was just thinking about this concept today and the impact that it has on my daily life.
A common scenario….. I think my day will be busy or bad and guess what………….. it is busy and bad.
So why do I do that? Why can’t I wake up and think …………’Ahh today is going to be a good day?’. I don’t know why, yet is it such a simple concept. In fact, I would like to know if many people these days really do wake up thinking that?!
I feel like I am not alone when I say, most days I wake up weary, and my first thoughts are, ‘Right what is on today? How many things am I squeezing into the next 24 hours?’. There is no excitement about what the day might hold, about possibilities, surprises or spontaneity. It is a pre-planned schedule, designed to achieve and fit in the most things possible. And heaven forbid, if I don’t get all the scheduled things in. The day is obviously bad and I am a failure.
When someone says ‘ How are you?’ my standard answer is ‘busy’. But worse still, I say it like it is a badge of honour, like it is what I am meant to say and how I am meant to behave. Why are we doing this to ourselves? A few years ago, I used to say ‘Good thanks, how are you?’. Albeit often an automatic response, but at least it was better than ‘Busy’.
There is a pandemic out there. I know for certain I am not alone. There are millions of us living out our day in our mind in those 5 minutes we are awake in bed…………….. then we get up and GO, GO, GO because that is what we think we are meant to be doing. Achieving, achieving, ticking things off.
We allow no time to be, to live, to experience.
Somehow, we think there is time for that later, when we have done all the jobs and achieved all the things, got the promotion or finished the study or won lotto. But that never comes, there is just more to achieve, to tick off the list. Really all we are doing, is cheating ourselves. We are missing out on living.
But how on earth do we change this mentality?? I am welcome to some ideas because I really feel like I could do with some tips. Tomorrow I am going to try really hard to wake up and lie in bed for 5 minutes contemplating the possibilities the day might bring, the things I might see and the people I might meet (even during an 8.5 hour day at work, while juggling kids on school holidays).
SAA
The Travel Bee 