Trying vs. Doing

We had a lovingly amazing Art of Living Course last week with the most fabulous group of women. This week we chose “Trying versus Doing” as our focus point. We’re each paying attention to when the word “try” comes up in our conversations. “Trying” reflects a half-hearted effort with a notion of failure built into it. “Trying” just causes strain in the mind. So, we’re seeing what happens when we say “do” instead.

I realized I’d been using “try” when my trainer at the gym wished me a happy new year on January 24^th! Seems I’ve been “trying” to get to the gym. And, indeed, there’s been a bit of achey-whiney, whishy-washy-ness in my head each time I’ve thought “I need to get to the gym.” I might have well said “I’m trying to finish my thank you notes from my wedding.” (Yes, 11 years later, it’s still an unfinished project. I think that’s gone and done for now.) 

Trying lead me to Regretting! Never noticed that before. Seems that the things I "try" to do are things I really want to do. And when I don't, I regret not having done them. oops. 

So, “trying to go to the gym” has been causing me heart ache in my head. When I switched that in my head to “I’m going to the gym twice a week,” immediately my brain followed up with “OK, I’ll go on Tuesdays when I have a babysitter and then I just need to coordinate with Mandeep to go on either Saturday or Sunday. In fact, I can certainly get there Saturday & Sunday and buy a video to follow at home.”

Heart ache gone! Yahoo-ness Here I am!

Hmmm…what else am I “trying” to do? It ain’t worth a dime for the exhaustion it’s causing in my head and I can instead just do it and enjoy having done it!

Let’s see…

1.     Calling a short list of folks I need to get back to --- OK, I’ll do that today.

2.     Ordering pictures for Chetana’s photo album – OK, I have time tonight to do that.

3.     Drinking water! Turns out I’m thirsty right now. --- off I go to get water.

Jai Gurudev! ~ Victory to the Big Mind that is Peace, Joy & Love and it’s in each of us!

Day 14: Worrying is to Exhaustion | as | Lifting Boulders & Dropping on Your Toe is to Exhaustion

I can spend a lot of time contemplating. Then worrying. Then being anxious. Then regretting. It goes something like this…”I don’t know what to do. What should I do? There’s so much to do. What if I do the wrong thing? I think I made a mistake. I made a mistake. Oh, no. I made a mistake…”

1 minute of worrying = 10 minutes of hard physical labor = total exhaustion

Ergo –

Mental exhaustion (the broken record of worry, regret, anxiety, etc.) is just as hard on the body as lifting boulders and putting them down on your toe…over and over.

Wisdom!

7:04 PM Chetana is crying and my mental game has started…”I don’t know what to do? What’s the right thing to do?…” HALT!

The little wisdom bird chirps, “Hold on, Holy Babbler! Just make a choice. Go with it. And then relax. You can reassess later. But, for now, just take the action and be done with it.”

Voila! I choose to let her work this out on her own. Right? Wrong? Who the heck can know – nobody! So, take the action. See what happens. Reassess as needed. And when the “Oh, no!” burps in my head? Just smile at it and say, “It’s OK. We took this action 100%. When we’re finished with the action, we can reassess. But! Don’t delay the action because of the babbling mind! Take action. Take action. Take action.” That’s Life @ 100%!