The Conditions for Doing

I struggle to do the thing at times, my focus narrows, I start trying to force through the obstacles, forgoing rest or recovery until some future date, when I have done the thing. But that’s not how it ever works for me. I forget this far too often.

Or maybe this is the real process?

Because all the times I have “done some thing” it is not because I tried to do it, but rather that the conditions for “the doing” were just so that “the thing” happened organically. It’s not a lack of intention though, these things I have done are not happenstance, it would be unfair to say they were. Instead I prefer to look at it as in those times I was intentionally creating the conditions for the thing to emerge.

What I am noticing is that when I find myself trying to force through process, late nights and neglecting my needs because they would take away from “the doing”, I am putting myself in survival mode. Quite literally, I think to myself, once I reach my goal I can rest and then I will take care of myself. Once I get away from the tiger I will sleep, eat and hydrate. But the tiger never rests because the tiger is me, the tiger is my own sense of needing to “do” to survive, partially true, partially my own creation, and it is fascinating to consider how my approach to process can impact my nervous system.

How subtle survival mode can creep into our daily experience. And how hard it is to regulate after.

So here’s to turning attention away from doing the thing, and instead focusing energy on creating the conditions for the thing we want to emerge.

Ceud mile failte,

KB