Having just completed teaching one workshop, I’m now mentally preparing for teaching in the Yoga Therapy Intensive in Byron Bay.
However, I’m following my own advice to the driven, stressed-out people who take up yoga to relax: chill a little. You may have had the experience of being so intensely productive that you use up all your reserves and end up flat on your back, unable to do anything.
So, for the time being I’m dawdling. My desk needs tidying, documents require filing, and emails demand answering, but I’m looking the other way.
I find it’s hard to sit down and evaluate, out of many tasks that are yelling out for my attention, exactly which ones are most important.
In fact, the decision-making process regarding anything we do can be headache inducing. I remember going into huge American supermarkets and feeling paralysed by trying to choose among the plethora of products – 20 different kinds of toothpaste or 15 types of yoghurt. Do I want whiteners, brighteners or lighteners? Do I want fat-free, probiotic, or Greek-style?
One of the reasons that yoga retreats are popular is that you don’t have to make any decisions. You walk through the door and put yourself into the caterer’s and teacher’s competent hands for the weekend, and you just trust that what they choose for you is what you want.
We often think of discipline as burdensome, but one of the big plusses of having regular routines is that we can just slot into a groove. My mind doesn’t have to choose my early morning activity: discipline chooses for me. I’m in the Yoga Shed most mornings between 7:30-9 am for practice.
Now, if I only had a regimen for keeping my desk clean 🙂
Here’s a great link on the subject of decision fatigue.