I have a great editor who rates a Treat before it gets edited. This Treat in its former version needed work. Sometimes I see the vision of the Treat and I am not sure how to translate it on paper.
After hearing her feedback, I headed up the walking trail, grateful to be outside in the very cold morning air (cold for Ojai). I was fully absorbed in my surroundings, listening to the crunch underneath my feet, the birds chirping all around, the smell of the dirt on the trail, looking up at the amazing clear blue sky and feeling the sun intermittently touch my face as I walked.
As I relaxed further into my body fully engaged in the walking, I realized what I wanted to say about "gentle doing."
Gently doing is letting go of the intensity of added pressure to complete and relaxing fully into what we are doing, letting go of any focus on the future and allowing ourselves to simply receive what is next delivered to us in perfect timing.
Gentle doing lies in the awareness of being while doing. It's effortless, fully absorbed in the moment, receptive to what is and unencumbered by pressure, racing, and reacting behaviors.
In that state we can take everything in, see the nuances, hear information we might otherwise miss, pick up something on our desk that might have been passed over in our hyper focus and write a Treat that Mary approves!!!
I think more and more we need those days of gentle doing allowing ourselves to let go and be led, be completely absorbed, oblivious to what is next and settled into our relaxed selves. And the bonus? A connected pace of gentle doing masterfully completes in the natural flow and progression of the day.
Martha Invitations
1. Take a moment and drop fully in to your surroundings now.
2. Listen and allow the next thing to do to be revealed.
3. Every so often just stop and let out a gentle sigh.
Martha