Chillax time: it's a skill

It’s funny how you can be reading a book or watching your latest ‘chewing gum for my brain’ series on Netflix and suddenly something quite profound reaches through the happy haze and gives you a big life insight.

The same insight was delivered to me in two separate packages recently.  

The first time was when I was reading ‘Untamed’ by Glennon Doyle.  She describes how she has had to tone down her angry response to her partner taking time out to lounge in front of rubbish TV.  I identified with Glennon straight away.

I am that person who has to be doing, achieving or cleaning something. It is only when the house is gleaming or more usually when I have completely run out of puff that I will allow myself to lie on a sofa and zone out in front of the box. I am also a pain because I will apply my flawed thinking to any other humans near me - ‘how can you sit there when there are toys/books/cups lying around the living room?’.

The second time was watching ‘Sweet Magnolias’ on Netflix (please don’t judge - I needed to break up the constant property programming).  Quite unusually for a light entertainment show, they managed to crowbar a Shakespeare quote into yet another intense scene: “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so…”.

It made me sit up straight. Good old Will, spouting mindfulness thinking from 1609 (yes I Googled it).

But the trick for me is to use this insight and apply it on a day to day basis.  I need to stop pushing myself to exhaustion before allowing myself to relax/flop/zone out.  There is always the urge to dry one more cup, send one more tweet or think up one more problem to solve.  There is nothing good or bad.  I am not helping myself or those that live with me, by thinking that relaxing is bad and being busy is good.

These days my MS is a strict taskmaster and will quickly rap me on the knuckles if I try to do too much. Chillax time is a skill that I need to master rather than ending up with my MS reminding me.