Daily Divine: Letting go of your schedule.

​People say to me “I know you’re really busy,” and I have to laugh, because I don’t feel busy.

In the last few years, I’ve committed to living a life in which I don’t feel rushed; I’ve committed to doing my work in a way that feels spacious, unhurried, calm and most of the time, enjoyable.

I have gotten to this place, by letting go of my schedule.

If you looked at my calendar, you’d find I keep my schedule much emptier than most.

There are core things that I show up to: writing and teaching and recording.
There are family things that I show up to: taking care of my kids and kin.
But the rest of it?

In the desire to live in the spacious, unhurried, unrushed way, I needed to let go of a lot of busyness and distraction.

As I stared to pare down the “shoulds” on my calendar, I found that most of the “shoulds” weren’t important.

They were someone else’s idea of how I should fill my time. They reflected what mainstream society said I should do. They stemmed from some old guilt I had about needing to be busy all the time.
I let it all go, and I haven’t missed any of it.

Instead of being distracted, rushed and exhausted by all this constant transition of one thing to the next to the next, I now have big blocks of time in my schedule in which I can have intensive periods of concentration and focus. Intensive and complete attention to what matters most, which right now is my clients and students.

I’m working incredibly hard and with incredible attention.
And at the same time, there’s…

No sense of rush or hurry.
No sense of plowing through a to-do list.
No overwhelm at trying to be in seven places at once.
No slavery to calendar or clock.

If you know what you really want to do in this life, paring down your schedule to nothing else except that, can help you begin to live that life.

If you don’t know what you really want to do in this life, paring down your schedule might help you figure it out.

Much love, 
SARA