From time to (pre-corona) time I run workshops for woman called Calm Home Calm Life. In these workshops we focus on what’s really important to us and then how to edit out the rest.
One of my activities is about creating a mantra for yourself based on what you’re grappling with. I always participate in the groups as much as I facilitate.
In my last group I came up with ‘I surrender to the natural rhythm of the day’. This was in response to my OCD need to control and schedule myself and my children versus my innate knowledge that each day is different and everything unfolds exactly as it should.
I need this mantra now more than ever.
After the initial “honeymoon” of isolation wore off I tried to create an hour by hour schedule to make it all manageable...
7 - Daven with Dad
8 - Baking Breakfast
9 - Home School
10 - Indoor Physical Play
11 - Outdoor play
12 - Drive and Audiobook
1 - Nap and TV
Etc etc etc.
I also wrote that schedule after one day that followed that exact pace and worked out well. I thought I would just replicate it forever more.
Cute.
Naturally this was an epic fail. However I have some very worthwhile insights to share in the fray.
Having a schedule is useless because each day has its own unit script which we can choose to follow instinctively; or we can try to fight or control it. The latter is exhausting; the former, liberating.
There are certain things I like to do each day, so having those written on the proverbial fridge door of my mind is helpful.
For example: baking, yoga, LEGO, schoolwork, sorting and editing, long drive, listening to a shiur, writing, getting fresh air, sitting on the grass, watching a movie, out-and-out screen time, and so on.
But trying to force these into set times simply doesn’t work. Now I do them as and when the need arises and it’s much calmer. More fluid.
So I leave you with this thought, surrender to the natural rhythm of your day by getting still and really quiet. The next step will reveal itself in the silence