It’s Mental Health Awareness month, and I feel there’s an aspect of our well-being that is often overlooked with the challenges of increased depression, anxiety, and loneliness in our era. And that’s spiritual health.
I’m writing this post during the summer, and it’s pretty toasty outside. A lot of us are feeling hot under the collar. But the heat I’m talking about in this post is when we become triggered in some way and feel angry, irritable, agitated, or even afraid. Knowing what works and having a plan to get yourself back to your center and a feeling of ease is paramount, especially in our current pandemic when almost everyone is being triggered by almost everything.
Everyone has been talking about bucket lists for years, but I find they just create more anxiety. Here’s what I do instead.It’s all over social media. Just checked one off my bucket list, as they post an amazing selfie from the Himalayas or while scuba diving with sharks. People have jumped on the bandwagon of this trend to create a list of all the things they have ever wanted to do before they “kick the bucket.”
I like lists, too. I have my to-do list, my goal list, my list of classes that I would like to take someday, etc. But the idea of a bucket list bothers me.
It’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself; to have these 10, 50, 200 things that you want to do before you die. When I was in my 20’s, that was a cool idea. I hadn’t done that much and hadn’t seen that many places. So it made sense to me back then (although the term hadn’t come into use at that time).
Having that bucket list feels anxiety-provoking. What happens if you get older, and things still aren’t checked off? A competition begins with others who are ticking off their items – will you feel that you’re behind? What if your fear about trying some of those things holds you back? What if you spend so much time planning for fulfilling X amount of bucket list items per year that you aren’t really appreciating what you have? The idea of a bucket list should be fun and exciting, not stressful and overwhelming.
Relief! Ever have that feeling after a big project or deadline is done? Yes, I had that last night, after my daughter’s birthday party was over.
BUT…I also noticed that the feeling of “relief” is very short lived. There is always something else ahead, another project, deadline, thing I “have to” do. And the cycle continues… stress before, relief after.
It is possible to step out of that cycle. One way to do it is from yoga philosophy – the two foundational principles of yoga, Abhyasa and Vairagya
