It didn’t take long for me to pick my monthly mantra for July. As soon as I read it, I knew that this is the mantra I wanted in my life right now. The mantra I will be saying to myself everyday this month (or at least, I’ll try to say it everyday) is “be still.” It’s so wonderfully simple. Just two words. And yet, it packs so much meaning for me.
Jacob and I recently bought our first house and ever since we’ve been under contract with this house, it has been a deluge of to-do lists and calls and chores and tasks. Silly me, I thought it would end when we moved into the house. It didn’t. There are still a lot of tasks, calls, to-do lists, and projects now. It feels never ending. With everything that’s been going on these last two months, I feel like I can’t focus on anything because there’s so much that I want to get done or that needs to get done. When I’m working on one project, I’m thinking about another one and wondering if I should be working on the other projects instead of the one I’m working on. I constantly reprioritize and reprioritize and reprioritize making list after list. I run around in circles, unable to focus on any task that’s in front of me.
So starting today, I’m going to be telling myself to be still. When I wake up in the morning I will tell myself to be still and when I go to sleep at night I will tell myself to be still. If I’m relaxing and feel guilty about it because there is so much on my list of things to do, I will remember to be still. The things on the list will get done even if I take breaks. If I’m unable to focus on a project I will tell myself to be still. I can focus on the project that is in front of me and think about other projects when I finish the one I’m currently working on. I’m hoping this mantra will help keep me in the moment and help me to focus on what is in front of me right now. I don’t need to rush through the projects and tasks that I have. Maybe they really will be never ending. And that’s all the more reason to be still.