So you're bored tired and sick. Nothing's working for you. You feel like a wreck and can't get a clear idea through your head. You've got deadlines and projects lining your cubicle, but can't get your head into it. If you were a baseball player, you'd have struck out every time at bat; if you were an engineer, your bridge would've collapsed; if you were a painter, you'd try to peddle a blank canvas off as just darn good post-modern art; if you were a salesperson, you'd be offering people money to buy your product; if you were a cartoon character, you'd be E-Ore; if you were in a movie, it would be Dumb and Dumber. Woody Allen put it best: I never want to be part of a group that considers me a member. Well this is you. What are you going to do about it?
1. Sit back: Ok...you've got stuff piling up everywhere, you have demands on you from deadlines to picking up the kids to walking the dog--and you can't see your way through it. It's ok. Sit back, relax. Life isn't about that deadline or all those responsibilities seemingly hanging over your head--it's really just perspective.
2. Breathe: When you breathe, you bring oxygen to your brain. When you're stressed out, cortisol rushes from your kidneys to your brain causing temporary brain impairment--yes, you actually become dumber! Breathing is going to get oxygen back into your brain, and will help calm the nerves. Now don't breathe yourself into hyper ventilation--just breathe.
3. Look inside: You're all stuffed up in your head--you've got issues pressing down on you from all sides, and your brain is rushing through databases of worries at a terabyte per nanosecond. Get out of your head, and look inside--into your heart. What's going on? How's it beating? What does it want? Does it want the same as your head? Chances are, it doesn't. It's hard to get your heart and your head together--they're often on entirely different wave lengths. Our head is all about our egos, which makes screwing up difficult--we all do everything we can to preserve that fragile little image we manufacture every waking moment of our life. The heart often wants something else: community, to be loved, to love others, to live for purpose and meaning, to be in the moment. When you look inside your heart, you see things that you couldn't when you were all in your head.
4. Be grateful: There's so much research coming out about the importance of gratitude. Even while you're sitting in that pallid cubicle at work, or reading this on your iPhone in a packed out subway train, you have so many things to be grateful for. Look at those things--inside. Now count them. How many can you count? 3, 5, 35, 100? Can you keep going? Breath, life, health, a job, family, an amazing partner or spouse, sunlight--on and on you can go. Continue looking in; continue being grateful.
5. Put it back in perspective: You've sat back, breathed, looked inside, and noted what you're grateful for. Now you're ready to put it all back in perspective. Does that project you're in really seem that important to lose your health over? Do your responsibilities from picking up kids to cooking to walking the dog open to you opportunities to build your relationships with those you love most? Have you found a quiet moment of solitude that has opened you to a different way of experiencing life? Continue breathing; continue looking in your heart; continue being grateful...
See--things aren't that bad. In fact, they're probably pretty good. They probably could be a whole lot worse--something definitely to be thankful for. Now return to your work, your obligations, your to-do list; but do so with that grateful heart.
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