11 Oct Perspective

“Lately I’ve been sludging through the days, heavy from the weight of well…everything.”

-a journal entry from any day in the last 19 months

Sound familiar?

In such chaotic times, rife with uncertainty, posting on instagram about my paintings can feel fruitless.

For these times I’ve learned to keep some very positive and motivating people in my ear. Brendan Burchard is one of these people. He’s a coach and the author of High Performance Habits, a book that really helped me focus my life and business 3 years ago.  His podcast, The Brendon Show, delivers these pep talks that always give me fuel for thought and motivate me to press on.

One such episode he talks about writing down your 3 G’s first thing in the morning: 

Gratitude, Goals and Goodness. 

Goodness being…what happened yesterday that was good? He talks about the neuroscience at play here…triggering your hippocampus to action.

Sparking memory is good for creativity and creativity is good for coping.

This is why art, music, cooking etc. all can feel quite therapeutic.

The goal is to look back at your 3 G’s every night for a dose of perspective…to have a visual of what’s working and to literally see your progress.

Another great tip…

“Stop multitasking and do a meaningful activity.”

There’s something about slowing down, cutting out all the extraneous noise and being mindfully singular in your endeavors, that can bring everything into sharp focus.

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”

-May Sarton

I think the paintbrush is an instrument of grace as well.

Here are things that always help me feel less anxious, more motivated, at ease and grounded:

Writing, running, helping a friend, spending focused, quality time with my kids and good ole painting.

Also yoga, meditation, playing my singing bowl, dance and hot showers with a good lavender salt scrub.

And of course wise and timely words in my ear from motivating people like Brendon.

What are you doing on the days that feel like sludging through mud?

How do you keep going?