Day 155

I've come unstuck. David Allen's Getting Things Done has shifted the way I approach my day now. I can play with whatever I want whenever I want without feeling guilty or stagnating. There really is a time and a place for everything. And as soon as these times and places are defined, the less I have to think about them. Within the confines of context, time, energy, and priority it's easy to see the only possible "next action" to take at any given time. Unknowingly, David Allen has put Eckhart Tolle's teachings of being here and now into action. Tolle speaks about taking the one step, the only possible step we can take at any given moment and Allen shows us how to do that.

This past week has flowed beautifully and I haven't worried about what I should be doing, what I could be doing, and whether what I'm doing is the right thing in the first place. And I've made progress, if there is such a thing. The truth of the matter is that we're only always capable of doing the only possible thing we can at any given time within our given resources, attention span, preferences, responsibilities, and so on that determine the thing we ultimately end up doing. But giving each of these things the space to play themselves out, even if it's a neurotic need to count numbers for no apparent reason, is cleansing. The reason it's so cleansing is because when the things that are on our minds are given attention for a designated time, then they're no longer on our minds. And if they're still lurking around, then we can simply remind ourselves, "I have a designated time for that and that's when we'll meet again." And everyone is happy.

I won't go into details of how the system works because you can read about it in David Allen's book. I can only speak for myself and so far a weight has lifted off my shoulders. But I have to give a little warning with my recommendation. Don't get caught up in the outcome of any activity. Do it for its own sake. We are not any one thing nor are we the things we do. We're all of that and none of that. At least that's what I've been discovering.

The Practice

Daily Meditation - 20 minutes
Skipped - 1 day

Reflection

I did not question nor did I feel guilty about skipping a day of formal meditation. I did not feel drawn to it nor did it seem necessary. On Tuesday, I covered a special Ed class and I experienced another spontaneous true meditation. I had to sit with these two boys who weren't doing their work and make sure that they were reading. I couldn't work on anything else. My job was to sit there and literally stare them down so that they felt obligated to read. After resistance brushed hands with me, I sat down.

Thoughts of what I could or should be doing besides sitting there did not cross my mind. The desire to get up and do anything at all other than sit there did not arise. I sat for indeterminate amount of time in total surrender, dropped into being. It was a kind of relaxation that could only be described as if every single problem that I've ever had or thought that I had completely left my psyche. It was just that. It was just the sitting. It was just these two students in front of me. When I helped them it was a still doing, spontaneous, compassionate, complete.