“When everything is up to date in your life, you live in the present time and can experience a real feeling of surfing with the energy of life.”
– Karen Kingston, author of Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui
It’s hard for me to think of the last time I was totally caught up on everything—family commitments, work duties, freelance writing assignments, laundry, correspondence, clutter clearing, calls, bills, and on and on. Author Karen Kingston urges us to “do whatever it takes to catch up with yourself and then keep it that way. You will have more energy than you ever believed possible.” She refers to how children live in the moment—something she believes contributes to their vitality. When I am caught up on laundry and dishes, I always feel a sense of relief and an energy surge.
Because I love the idea of achieving an even greater sense of vitality, here’s how I approached her challenge: When my supervisor asked me to teach a summer class at the university, I gave myself permission to say “no.” Adding on more responsibilities was certainly not a way to catch up on those I already had. Instead, that summer I spent more time with my family and worked toward catching up with myself—recharging me for the following semester.
Because I love the idea of achieving an even greater sense of vitality, here’s how I approached her challenge: When my supervisor asked me to teach a summer class at the university, I gave myself permission to say “no.” Adding on more responsibilities was certainly not a way to catch up on those I already had. Instead, that summer I spent more time with my family and worked toward catching up with myself—recharging me for the following semester.
What request or task can you say “no” to in your life? What can you do today to begin to catch up with yourself?
I have always accepted the fact that I will never catch up with myself, so this post really resonated with me. I need to start unsubscribing from emails (except for this one ;) or at least not feel the need to read every single email I receive. I have 758 emails in one of my personal email boxes (and I have another email as well). I will never have time to read every single one. I need to accept that and start de-cluttering my inbox!
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