Learning to Let Go

Letting go is something people talk a lot about but not a lot of people really do. Everyone wants to be happier, more content with their life, more focused on what we really want, but most of us tend to carry on with our same bad habits, our same old routine, our same boring jobs. In the past year I've made attempts at letting go of a lot of ideals and letting go of a lot of activities. If I have 50 things on my dinner plate, how much can I really enjoy each one? What if I had only 5 things on my plate?

I've been learning to say NO to a lot of things. My time is valuable. I need to focus more on what is important to me. What are my priorities? I may say that my priority is writing, but if I spend 2 hours on Twitter or Facebook and only 20 minutes writing in a day, then what does that tell you about my priorities? Limiting my time on social media and the internet in general has been a great exercise in focusing on what I want to do, on leading an intentional life. Instead, I use the internet much more deliberately. I check emails for a limited time. When I find a Youtube video or an article I want to read, I save it for later when I have a better time to focus on it. I delay the desire to watch a video or read an article, and if I still want to take my time later then I will.

All of these things stem from letting go. The holiday season is a hard time for a lot of us but there is a lot of things we can do to lessen our stress and limit our focuses. Leo Babauta wrote a great blog post the other day about simplifying over the holidays. Give it a read here.

He also has a free E-book called The One Skill: How Mastering the Art of Letting Go Will Change Your Life. It is a short and easy read and very helpful. Check it out!

Healthy Eating

My mother recently bought a ton of groceries for me. I am undoubtedly appreciative of this gesture, but.... there is a lot of junk food that comes with it. The bane of my health, Doritos, came along with it. A huge bag, too. Twice the size of a regular size. And guess what? I ate all of it. I have more chips at home now too but I am trying to stay away from it as much as I can.

However, there is some good with this predicament as well. I recently wrote about the act of delaying my urges and my plan to stop buying Doritos at work. Well so far I have succeeded this week. When I get the urge, I tell myself I can have a snack at home. Then I can save the $1.50 that it would cost me to buy some. Usually by the time I get home I have supper (usually something healthy - last night I ate fish with roasted red peppers and onions over couscous, and I cooked it all myself) and after that I usually am no longer in the mood for a snack (except maybe a cup of tea). So I pass through the whole day without chips.

What I've learned in the past year is that how I feel is directly linked to what I eat. I eat salad for lunch everyday now, and I snack on apples or celery or hummus instead of chips or candy. Sometimes I'll eat a few nuts too (usually cashews or almonds - no salt added). I still eat junk food every now and then, but I do so in moderation, and if I do eat some fast food or some candy, I make sure to eat something healthy to counteract the bad effects it may have on my body. Since eating healthier and putting more fruits and vegetables in my body than probably any other period in my life, I really feel better than ever before. Not just physically, either, but mentally and emotionally. I feel better about going to work, about personal projects I am working on, about how I look. It feels great. The weather doesn't even bother me anymore. I can look outside at freezing rain and slushy streets and see the beauty in the changing season - all because I feel better inside. And that starts with eating healthy food.

Delay the Urge

Leo Babauta from Zen habits wrote a blog the other day on the Power of Delay.

http://zenhabits.net/inasec/

It is a very powerful idea and I love the concept so much that I am going to try this for the next week or so and see how I do. One of the biggest things I am going to try this with is my recent urge to buy a bag of chips at work (particularly Doritos, the bane of my health). When I get an urge to buy chips for an afternoon snack, I will instead delay the urge and say "hey! how I about I wait for another half an hour before getting chips?" I think this will be an easy and effective way to keep from eating so much junk food and saving myself change. Wish me luck!