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(this photo taken in September 2008; not much has changed since then)

I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, but part of traveling over a holiday weekend and having family obligations means less down time. In a typical trip to DC, I would have planned to stay through late Sunday or early Monday. With my mom’s illness, I needed to be home for lunch. But I digress.

The spring air combined with a much needed cocktail got my head wrapped around what needs to be accomplished during the month of April. I set about doing a bit of woolgathering and discovered that my wish list is quite long. Still, I allowed my mind to wander as I sat in the garden and thought about work and wants and needs and the need to reintroduce some creativity back into my daily life. Brief moments aren’t conducive to a real brain dump, so I saved that until my flight home.

After breakfast was served and I was enjoying my 3rd cup of coffee, I sat with pen and paper and begin listing everything that had gathered in my mind.    When you end up with a laundry list of to-dos and must-dos, getting a real control over it can be a task so daunting that it’s almost paralyzing. As overwhelming as it can be, the only way to make progress is to break it down into chunks and eat it like you would an elephant: one bite at a time.

April is going to be an interesting month.  I already had the beginnings of heavier than usual travel and with the (potential) new contract, that means three days a week on the road.  It’s the kind of travel I like:  solid contract with the ability to find my way around a new town and make it “mine”.  Granted, I’d love that city to be a city like DC, but to be honest, I’m thrilled with wherever work takes me.  (I can tell you that there is no Kimpton Hotel in this city – there isn’t even a single Hilton Property in the town!).

Just keep good thoughts headed my way as I break down my laundry list into those manageable bites and set out to conquer the little piece of my world!

When I realized that I had begun to take this gift for granted, I chastised myself.  All the years of well-practiced self-flagellation made it easy to slip into the negative voice in my head.  I hate that voice.  Sometimes, though, no matter how hard you try, the voice doesn’t quiet easily.   I have discovered, however, that if you allow yourself to be loved, the negative voice becomes dimmer and the voice you hear inside yourself is instead one more gentle and encouraging.

Today, I was feeling confident enough in myself to give myself the gift of peace.  I wasn’t looking to simply go through the motions, but to find that space where mediation is truly a part of your being.   I sat on the floor of my office next to the dog.  She loves for me to work in my office as it means she can nap in front of the sofa there.   I began breathing deeply and soon realized that my body was timing one deep inhalation and  exhalation with two of her breaths.  As I found the rhythm, within moments I had found my center.     I breathed and focused on the energies in my body, slowing moving energy from the tips of my fingers and toes to my chi and gently holding the energies.    And then I found it.  That perfect imperfect moment where the world around me disappears and there is nothing but energy and breath.

Like art, no two people will mediate the same.  But also like art, it is often about the process.  I’m thankful that the process once again feels not foreign, but like a part of me.

Happy Wednesday!

Twitter has kept me connected with old friends, helped me make new ones, kept me informed on the latest news, and allowed me to read the snarkiest thoughts of my children.   It is a fabulous piece of technology and networking that allows me to instantly be aware of the world around me.    Some days, however, especially on days when I am already stretching to maintain my focus, Twitter has become a distraction.  I have discussed this with other creative folks and many say the same thing: Twitter is reducing their productivity, especially on creative projects such as writing.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon “Adult Attention Disorder:  The Splintering of Communications“.  I clicked to read the article, thinking it was about ADD.  Instead, it was more about the perceived need to divide our attention between the many avenues of communication. Tom Steinert-Threlkeld consulted with Dr. David W. Goodman, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University.

What is happening with the splittering of communications instead is an overload of distractions, on individual plates.

This puts strain, instead, on what Dr. Goodman calls the “executive functioning” of the brain.

Some people are able to intuitively and naturally organize and prioritize endless streams of inputs and respond accordingly, rapidly.

Others, though, succumb to the distractions and can’t get out from under them. The barrage of communications and trying to figure out what to do with their contents – and the emotion that goes with some of it – “disrupts the ability to accurately prioritize” what to do. Or not to do.

I understood exactly what the article was talking about.  Some of us, in order to be more productive, require more structure.  I am always disciplined when it comes to work for my clients; I need to be more disciplined when it comes to making progress on some creative projects.  As part of that need to be more disciplined,   I decided that I would put myself on a Twitter Diet.

Like any diet, the same one doesn’t work for all of us.   For me, my Twitter diet will consist of not keeping TweetDeck open all the time, catching up on all my Twitter friends three or four times a day, and restraining myself from sharing so many thoughts that I irritate my own friends. I’m not abandoning Twitter, just cutting back a bit.   Like any diet, I will re-evaluate as time passes and make adjustments as I need.    I hope you will stick around and continue to “follow” me, but I understand if you don’t.

I welcome your thoughts and comments on my diet, as well as how Twitter has affected your productivity and creativity.