"The trick to blending work and play lies not in what you do, but in how you view what you do. See work as play and see play as important - very important"
This hit me like a brick - I get it! I've always been passionate about my work and practice but even still there are always areas that you don't like doing, like your tax for instance, so rather than feeling trapped in a never-ending cycle which you can't get out of, it was to change my attitude and feeling towards it instead. It didn't change what I had to do but this simple reminder took an enormous pressure off and turned my work into enjoyment. I now have this stuck to the wall above my desk and if I ever feel myself groaning over any aspect of my business, I look at this and I feel the shift inside so it suddenly seems to become easier, certainly more fun and I get it done faster too.
Obviously this is easier said than done when you have spent years ingraining a habit or our inner critic that I like to call the “gremlin”. At the The Conscious Club the other week I heard the neuroscientist, Dr Joe Dispenza from the movie What The Bleep Do You Know? talking about breaking the habit of the mind and recreating what you want in life. As he reiterated, the key is the combination of thought and emotion which makes it so powerful. Once you have the feeling, the action follows more easily. This applies both for the positives and negatives in our lives. It creates choice between your thoughts and emotional reactions. But if you've never known what it feels like to sing from the rooftops, it can be difficult to visualise and feel the joy that would accompany this. This is where I have found the ThetaHealing comes in as a tool to retrain the brain what these feelings feel like http://www.claudettewadsworth.com.au/thetahealing/ Simply repeating any affirmation or goal is not going to get you anywhere very fast - the key is to visualise and feel like you've already achieved it now in your life!
Prioritising play is also a fairly new concept as most of us were brought up in a society where play was seen as frivolous that should be placed well after work. However, research shows that employees who work less hours to enable more free time for relaxation and families, get the job done faster and more efficiently because they're more motivated, relaxed, happier and thereby, feel more fulfilled in their jobs. Hence the saying, if you want a job done, give it to a busy person - they've got less time at the job but they actually achieve more. Interestingly, more high profile executives are putting this into practice such as Facebook's CFO Sheryl Sandberg who leaves work at 5.30pm everyday to be home for her children.
What can you do to bring more play into your life?
Question whether you are taking on too much and preventing others from doing their fair share. You may be blaming them unnecessarily for not taking on more responsibility or beating yourself up for not getting everything done, although it maybe unrealistic. Be clear with your boundaries and learn to say No. Doing things you don’t want to only creates stress so change what you do or change your attitude as stress is the number cause of most health problems I see in my practice. Ask yourself these questions: What am I most grateful for in my life right
now? Who do I love? Who loves me? What am I committed to in my life right now? What am I most happy about in my life right
now? What am I proud of in my life right now? What am I most excited about in my life
right now? What do I enjoy most in my life right now? It does not have to take loads of time or money to have fun. Smiling and laughing occasionally is a start and helps to keep the "gremlin" at bay.