“Doing nothing that isn’t play”, how does that work with totting up your receipts at the end of the month or balancing your cheque book (in these days of online banking and debit cards does anyone balance their cheque book any more?).

So what are my options here:

• Just not doing it. I’m too much of a control freak and a worrier to be able to manage this. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at nights and I guess it isn’t really realistic.
• Getting someone else to do it. This is one I’ve tried when I’ve really got a lot on, but again I like it done a certain way. I used to spend as much time on my accounts as my accountant did, and at least now I don’t use him I know I’ll have it done on time.
• Reorgansing my life so there isn’t as much. We always have choice even if it’s not one we like, and I guess all this admin is my choice. I have done a lot of work paring it down, cutting out the dead wood and other such metaphors so not much room for improvement here, but one to keep in mind.
• Talking yourself into it. You can tell yourself all of the long term benefits of what you are doing, and just tell yourself to get on with it. Does that kind of internal argument really get you any where? I for one seem to automatically disagree if someone, even myself, tells me I have to do something. NVC says shouldn’t make any demands only requests, even of yourself. This is probably the only way to make a start.
• Go with the ‘Flow’, stop thinking about it so much and just get on with it! Buddhism says the way to be happy is to release yourself from all desires. I guess the desire to be doing something else is the problem. But how do you release yourself from that desire? Try and focus fully on the task at hand and block everything else out; try and achieve what pshchologists call “flow” where you are totally absorbed in the task at hand and time stands still?

Yeah, I’ll probably go for the ‘flow’, try and get in the zone and become one with my pile of receipts!

P.S. 11/9/9 – Steve Pavlina has just made a pertinent post that says to not bother with it, and just earn more money to pay someone else: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/a-fixed-income-is-a-sucker-bet/

Well I definitely feel calmer day to day. It works well with the Non-Violent Communication, in that Vipassana gives me the mental space in which to insert the NVC; I hopefully don’t loose my temper immediately at one of the many things that press my buttons and am able to respond calmly before I completely loose my rag.  

I kept up with the two hours a day meditation for the first week, but I was finding it a struggle to get past about 40 minutes. After that I was still meditating but just fitting in when I could, so maybe managing an hour a day. I got back into it a couple of months ago when my I was spending a lot of time on the train and had a lot of time to meditate. And know the mediation is feeling really good and an hour isn’t really a struggle at all. I start by just concentrating on my breathing until I can feel my breath is as slow and calm as it can be, then I let the tingling start from wherever it does and then gently follow it around my body. Until eventually I feel a warm glow in every part of my body, my mind is clear (mostly) and I’m very sensitive to every sensation – noise, warmth, cold. Feels pretty nice really and I look forward to it.