Loving ourselves and life from where we are
I’m counting down to contentment — to the starting date of my new sacred journey course,“Creating a Life of Contentment," which begins Sept. 15. For one entire year we will travel together as intimate companions: to relax, let go and rest into Love; to discover the bliss of our own life. I hope you will join me! You can learn all about it here.
Goldilocks in the House
I had plenty of time to create this blog post this morning but couldn’t figure out what to write about.
Not that I am lacking ideas. I have a list of Contentment writing prompts several lines long.
Prayers of contentment
The music of contentment
Contentment memories, to name a few.
And, yet, my mind whirled this morning. Feeling internal pressure to pen just the right thing—the perfect thing for today.
I should write about this.
I could write about that.
An annoying thought pattern I have come to know so well has taken over. It is the one that keeps me from making a decision and actually beginning. I am caught up in “just right” mind.
It feels rather like being Goldilocks, trying out the beds of the three bears. Then the chairs. Then the porridge. She went through all of them with a critical mind to find the one that was “just right.”
I often do that with my writing.
The thing is I don’t need to—not to get to the good stuff. It comes on its own if I just give myself over to the process. I simply need to recognize that Goldilocks is here—another bid from my ego to get drawn into perfection.
Perfection keeps you from trying. It can also keep you stuck in searching, which means ... you don’t get anything accomplished because you have spent so much time listening to the voice of doubt that you’ve lost touch with all of the good ideas you had in the first place.
Thankfully, I didn’t waste too much time this morning being stuck in “just right.” I have come to trust my wise self and follow her lead. She knows how to observe and acknowledge these messages of perfection. She points me in another direction.
Just type, she says. Get out of your mind and back to the keyboard. Just type. Put your fingers to the keys and trust where they will take you.
It works every time. Here I am writing this to you. Some good stuff came after all.
And there is Goldilocks—still wandering the room, trying out the sofa, thumbing through the books on the bookshelf, looking in the cupboards trying to find the perfect thing that will bring her Contentment.
Stop searching, I say to her. Come sit beside me. Breathe.
Contentment is here when you stop trying so hard. Do you feel it?
Let go, I say to her. Let go into love and be here with me now as we are ...
Perfection is the enemy of creation ...
~John Updike
Will you join me for the "Creating a Life of Contentment" course beginning soon? 10 days and counting to the sacred journey of a lifetime!
2 comments:
Goldilocks Syndrome - What a great name for that need to find the thing that's "just right." My mind is constantly running with things I want to write about ... but time is a challenge due to long hours at work and when I do have time, I want it to be just right. Your message is exactly right on for me. Thanks, Jan!
Hi Rose, glad you liked. "Just right" can mean many things. It could mean "perfect" or it could mean "comfortable" too. It could be rather obsessive too. It just depends on our make-up. I hope you enjoy your writing experiences.
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