Posts Tagged diary

Practice gratefulness daily

Posted by David C. Buchan in Inspiration and motivation, Self improvement on November 9th, 2009

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

In July 2008 I began the daily habit of selecting something I was grateful for and noting it in my diary. Gratefulness is one of the most powerful emotions we can have and for me the daily habit of reflecting was a moment of quiet and stillness as the world rushed around me. My experience of being grateful is whole of body; like a large sigh without the angst, or the feeling of a warm bucket of water tipped down my back.

The notes of my Ontological Coaching course suggest the following way of thinking about the mood of being grateful.

  • I assess that I have been and am the beneficiary of many possibilities in life
  • I assess myself to be very fortunate to have experienced these possibilities and benefits
  • I declare that I am grateful to the world in general, and also specific individuals for this enrichment
  • I also declare that it is a privilege to be alive

Today I will reignite my habit and bring it to the new world. A tweet a day with the hashtag #gr8fl. There is nothing too great or small to be grateful for as I have previously acknowledged: Update 7 January 2009 I’ve not been able to develop this habit the way I would have liked to. The gratitude is there. The habit of posting on Twitter isn’t.

  • Warm socks to put on my feet (mid-Winter item)
  • The opportunity we had to swim together as a family
  • The patience of my wife
  • Microwave popcorn
  • Learning that gratitude is a feeling and not just words.

If you would like to follow along please do so on my Twitter feed. I’ll subscribe to #gr8fl and if you post with the same tag I’ll see it.

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Little known ways to eliminate stressful thinking

Posted by David C. Buchan in Getting Things Done, Self improvement, Writing on April 28th, 2009

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

If your body is tense you can massage it into relaxation. What if your mind is tense? How do you relax that?

It is possible to eliminate stressful thinking and massage your mind into relaxation. This is the second in a series of articles on stress management explaining the simple and practical ways in which you can reduce stress in your life to a level that you can then do something positive about it. Yesterday we covered ways to eliminate sources of unwarranted stress. How did you go?

Journalling creates paths forward

We do not realise how accelerated the rate of our lives has become, or the speed at which we are driving ourselves. Many people are destroying their physical bodies by this pace, but what is even more tragic, they are tearing their minds and souls to shreds as well.

Norman V. Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (Bungay, Suffolk: Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) 1984), p.96.

I am quite capable of carrying a lot of stressful thoughts around in my head. The moment when I scream inside is that very moment when my mind and soul tear. I no longer feel as capable as I was before. These are the moments when I most need to have a conversation with myself.

A mind tearing itself to shreds is not capable of having a conversation with itself. You just can’t hear yourself think over the stressful thoughts and as thinking occurs fast there is no chance to interrupt.

Writing your thoughts down is one way of breaking this cycle. I call it journalling and others will say writing in a diary. It doesn’t matter which. What is important is your willingness to pick up a pen and start writing what you are thinking. The lag between the two i.e., the difference in speed at which you think and write, is where the magic occurs.

I frequently journal my thoughts onto paper. Daily if I can, but always when I am stressed. It acts as a pressure valve to get what I really think onto paper and out of my head. Often it doesn’t matter what I write but that I have written something. As I write I listen for the real thoughts which now have space to surface. Each and every time I do this I learn something which provides a new path forward. With that my stress is reduced.

So instead of running or going to the gym to relieve stress, take out a pen and exercise with that instead.

The three-fold nature of work

David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology describes a three-fold nature of work. Stress can come from being imbalanced across the areas. Take a look and see where your balance lies.

  1. Doing pre-defined work: This is choosing from what is already on your to-do list and calendar
  2. Doing work as it appears: Responding to the latest, loudest and new opportunities
  3. Defining work: Working out what is important, scheduling etc.

If you are stressed it is likely you are working too much in one area or you have conflicts between areas which you are not adequately handling.

Tomorrow: If You Don’t Affirm Yourself Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later

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