This morning I woke up like this.

Can you soak in simplicity today?

I’m asking you this because it’s the question I’ve just asked myself 😀.

Let me explain…

After a few weeks of hectic family life, work, feverish lurgies doing the rounds, a seven year old’s knackered tantrums and a wakeful baby who likes to party like it’s 1999 (except it’s not 1999 and I’m not 19 dancing & whooping in a dark field at 2am; he’s dancing & whooping & crying in a dark cot).

Ooosh, so arrived my ego… aka: Martyr-Fixer Jo*.

*Thanks to regular meditation and mindfulness she doesn’t get to show up much these days before I catch her, but here she was, on blinding full beam at 6am this morning:

Woe is me. ‘Tis so hard. Am broken. Need a break. Must fix the baby sleeps. Must fix my sleeps. Must speak to a child behaviourist to fix the tantrums. Must figure out all the things I’ve done wrong as a mother to need to go begging for child behaviourist. Must infuse all food with secret spinach to fix the immune systems. Must buy new blender to create secret spinach… And must exercise more to cope with all demands on tired body. And so it goes.

But I’m lucky. Because thank God, Buddha and The Holy Google, somewhere along the way I met mindfulness.

And so, this morning, I STOPPED. And recognised I was in ‘tail wagging dog’ mode. Remembered that as soon as Martyr-Fixer Jo rocks up (and trust me, she’s a lot less fun than Dancy-Whoopy-1999 Jo), it’s time.

Time to soak in simplicity.

To let go. And watch my thoughts and feelings come and go like wind in the trees.

And, just that realisation, that moment, that ‘catch’ – my jaw tension drops. A recognition glimmers in, a flicker that this is how the energy and joy rekindle.

It seems a simple shift. And it is, but it’s also profound.

So will you join me? Because you know what to do. We all do. We just need to trust our inner sight today and let things come and go like the wind.

We can soak in the simplicity of a coffee, the tenderness of tiredness, the ease of the breeze. We can even simplify our experience in the boardroom or on a crowded bus, if we just ease up, slow down, tune in and allow.

You see, when stress kicks in we often lurch to fix, problem-solve, self-flagellate, when all we really need is the self-awareness to see this lurch as the red flag to strip things back.

Because the simplicity is always there, just under the thoughts and feelings. Available in every moment.

And I feel so much better for remembering and feeling that today. 😀

Wishing you a simple-soaking Tuesday,

Love,
Jo x