When faced with a difficulty or need for change, we tend to look for a brand new solution, something we can add to improve the situation or the quality of our life. But a far more powerful question is: what can you stop doing?
If you have a leak somewhere, no matter what you put in will slowly leak out. The wise thing to do is to plug the hole first.
If you are putting nutrients in your body, but you can’t absorb them, if you are working harder and harder in an exhausted state but can’t get your best work done, if you have to take sleeping pills to get a good night’s rest, if you eat often but never feel satisfied, if you buy new things only to tire of them, maybe it’s not a question of doing more?
We are a consumer society – we eat too much, shop too much, spend too much time on our screens and this overstimulates our minds and our nervous system. We get needy and greedy. We suffer from the not enough syndrome – not enough time, energy, love, money, not enough stuff even though we are drowning in it.
Consuming and creating are like oil and water, they don’t mix!
What if instead of doing more, you press pause and reset, consume less of everything from food to media, let yourself just be present and observe for a moment so that you may find out where the leak is. Then you may consider what you need to do next.
So the question for you is: what is the one thing you can stop doing right now that will create more time, energy or connection that you seek?