Day 9 Question to Ponder

Have you been overly critical of yourself lately? How and why have you done this?

I have indeed been critical of myself lately. Around all the things I "have" to do and so little time to do them in--but I must! I must!

I only have about three hours in the evenings after work before bed time. And I cram a lot into them. Currently I've been (trying to cram) cramming my meditation time, this SEP, the daily body/feeling exercises the therapist assigned to me, time on the treadmill, and other reading/learning related to my spiritual practice. Along with dinner and quality time with the wife and whatever "down time" I can find.

Well, it's way to much. But I was trying to force myself to keep up (do it all and do it all perfectly) and/or getting angry/down on myself when I couldn't. Which is pretty typical of me--setting ridiculously high expectations for myself.

The good news is that I managed to come to my senses and realize there's NO WAY to do all that in a few hours. So I decided to focus on the SEP and the therapist's exercises during the workday evenings, and see what I can do to add some of the other stuff in on the weekends when I have more time.

It cracks me up that it took me a week to figure that out.

Oh, and on top of all that, a crack has appeared in my do it all and do it all perfectly persona--I actually decided to split day nine up into--gasp--TWO days. (I know!) Did the activity and journaling last night and the rest tonight. There's hope for me yet!

 

Don't work so hard at it...

 

Saltyessentials. I think you've solved your problem by doing some of your schedule weekdays and others on the weekend.
Be sure to save time for yourself (relaxing and doing things that make you happy) and also time with your wife.

Be sure to practice mindfulness (living in the present moment) and deep breathing while you do everything.
I had a profound calming effect.