Passwords, Buttons, and Whatever Else it Takes
Today I am grateful for morning patio time and for people to support me in sobriety and recovery.
You may have picked up that I am prone to overdoing and overthinking. I have to practice pausing and I have to practice slowing down. It doesn't come naturally or easily to me and my little old brain.
It is one of the reasons why habitual practice of gratitude has been so helpful to me.
So I am willing to do whatever it takes. Do a daily gratitude journal day after day, year after year. Create blog posts day after day, year after year. Write gratitude letters and thank yous. Dozens of them. These efforts pay wonderful dividends.
When it comes to practicing pausing and slowing down, I have tried many things. Some work better than others. Two things that are minor but effective have to do with passwords and buttons.
If you are like me, you have more passwords for various devices and accounts than you care to have. I could let the computer or phone remember my passwords, but I choose to type them in most of the time. That is because the typing itself is a pause, and also because most of my passwords have significance to me in terms of something or someone I am grateful for.
A little aspect of my day, but it comes up several times and each time serves as a healthy reminder. (And when I catch myself wishing I had done it the easy way, I smile because I know myself.)
And the buttons? This isn't as regular of a practice, but I have been known to utilize it. Wearing something that requires a few extra steps to button or hook can be too much for me some days. I will even avoid wearing such things when I know it may cause me to teeter on the brink. But on other days, I do wear such things and appreciate the pausing that happens as I button or hook. Just enough time for me to quiet my brain and perhaps be grateful that I have plenty of clothes to wear.
Whatever it takes. A quieter mind is worth it.
You may have picked up that I am prone to overdoing and overthinking. I have to practice pausing and I have to practice slowing down. It doesn't come naturally or easily to me and my little old brain.
It is one of the reasons why habitual practice of gratitude has been so helpful to me.
So I am willing to do whatever it takes. Do a daily gratitude journal day after day, year after year. Create blog posts day after day, year after year. Write gratitude letters and thank yous. Dozens of them. These efforts pay wonderful dividends.
When it comes to practicing pausing and slowing down, I have tried many things. Some work better than others. Two things that are minor but effective have to do with passwords and buttons.
If you are like me, you have more passwords for various devices and accounts than you care to have. I could let the computer or phone remember my passwords, but I choose to type them in most of the time. That is because the typing itself is a pause, and also because most of my passwords have significance to me in terms of something or someone I am grateful for.
A little aspect of my day, but it comes up several times and each time serves as a healthy reminder. (And when I catch myself wishing I had done it the easy way, I smile because I know myself.)
And the buttons? This isn't as regular of a practice, but I have been known to utilize it. Wearing something that requires a few extra steps to button or hook can be too much for me some days. I will even avoid wearing such things when I know it may cause me to teeter on the brink. But on other days, I do wear such things and appreciate the pausing that happens as I button or hook. Just enough time for me to quiet my brain and perhaps be grateful that I have plenty of clothes to wear.
Whatever it takes. A quieter mind is worth it.
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