The Nourisher - Editor’s Blog

Yesterday I saw a friend at the organic butcher. I haven’t seen her for some time, she lives in the next town. She said “I’m really busy but I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.” I commiserated but noted, “I sometimes think that but when I look back on what I’ve achieved over the last few years, I’m astounded. I think our spirits are so enthusiastic and so deeply desire to give our gift to the world, we feel pushed to make it happen sooner rather than later.”

This got me thinking though. Am I being as productive as I can be? Am I managing my time well? (a question that haunts me often) Am I giving my gift as well as I could?

This last month has been so incredibly busy. Nourished Magazine is a new baby and requires so much of my time (just as a newborn does) it’s quite overwhelming. Yesterday was our youngest child’s 5th birthday and the extra tasks, as joyful as they were, really made a difference in my work day so I didn’t get done what I wanted to. In fact I’ve had many days like that lately. Rushing from task to task, grumbling at messes made by kids having fun, and chucking full blown tantrums (me not the kids) when things aren’t moving quickly enough drains the joy from our existence. All this because my most precious commodity, time, seems to be threatened.

Since having kids I’ve realised how precious time is and often I feel there’s not enough. This issue has plagued me for quite some time. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

On Tuesday, I’d had enough, I needed help and so I asked for it.

Every week, at least once, I go to my dear friend Julia’s place to partake in a “Onessness Blessing”. If you want to know more about Oneness Blessing read my article about Anandgiriji and The Oneness University. The process of a Oneness Blessing usually includes an opportunity to set an intention. I think of this as a prayer to the deepest part of mySelf, an entreaty to the Goddess who represents my deepest Self and on Tuesday, I prayed for assistance. Funnily enough, I meditated so deeply and was so blasted from the blessing I received, I could hardly talk let alone drive home afterwards. It took me a couple of hours (sitting in bliss) before I could consider getting on with my busy life. By this time, all I could do was pick up the kids from school and get on with the afternoon unpack, homework, dinner preparation, clean up and get ready for women’s group. A whole day gone, no productivity whatsoever. I was beginning to feel that going to the Blessings was just too time consuming (too indulgent) and thought of going only once a week if they were going to knock me out so much.

I forgot all about my petition to the Goddess. Until this morning:

• 7 am - after 1 1/2 hours of rushing to finish this month’s issue, the kids interrupting me for assistance with various things, imploring Sai, the eldest, to cook scrambled eggs and Brynn to make toast, growling at Wes my dear husband and web developer for not completing the newsletter, so I could release the new edition precisely at the time we sent the newsletter (beat that for perfectionist insanity).
• 7.30 am - freaking out when the issue launched but we couldn’t see the exerpts, only the titles of the articles.
• 8.20 am - berating Sai for taking too long to poo (his riding buddy was waiting for him) while running around the house packing bags, library books, bus passes. I even put his shoes and socks on him because he was too slow (more insanity)
• 8.45 am - multi-tasking so hard I’ve forgotten now all the things I accomplished while shoving the two little ones out the door and into the car
• 9.30am - all three kids safely at school and I’m shopping for ingredients for buckwheat pancake stack to take into school for Ronin’s birthday celebration. ARGHHH!

As I was driving home, though, a lovely calming energy suddenly washed over me. I began to sing and smile with causeless joy and a most nourishing thought landed in my mind. It was this, “you have spent too long telling yourself, there’s not enough time. Now you can know there is.” And suddenly I felt that was true, there is enough time. Suddenly that constant hum of lack in the back of my mind was gone and I felt there was enough time for everything. I can’t explain it. It just is.

When I got home (after cleaning the breakfast dishes - no resentment, no rushing, no overwhelm - wow) I sat down to the computer and flicked over to Steve Pavlina’s site. If anyone knows about time management, he will. Sure enough I found much to mull over.

His time management post is very useful.
His Do It Now post inspiring.
And his Conscious Procrastination practical and innovative.

So here are my new understandings so far:

• Time management requires a thorough and ruthless evaluation of my reality. I must assess whether my current reality is in congruence with my mission or my purpose in life. Every task I undertake must be the most aligned, the most congruent and the most effective task I can do in this moment to achieve my mission. Anything else is a waste of time.
  So first of all, what’s my mission? My purpose is the raising of collective human consciousness. My role is to assist in the rebalancing of the divine masculine and the divine feminine on this planet. And my goal is to reach as many people as possible with the energy of nourishment, lavishly gifted to us and through us by the Goddess. My desire is to inspire 1 million people to begin to think in terms of nourishment, to ask themselves the question, “What is the most nourishing choice I can make now?”
  Steve Pavlina says “It’s usually not that difficult to identify incongruencies in your beliefs. You probably have lots of them, but you may have been taught that it’s just normal to feel incongruent.” Actually, it’s normal to be enlightened. But I certainly wasn’t feeling enlightened this morning while rushing the kids out the door.
  So here’s my number one belief. “What’s most Nourishing is always most helpful to achieving my purpose.” Nourishing my children properly, ensuring they have all they need to comfortably spend the day at school (not always the most nourishing of places), delivering this month’s issue and fulfilling my responsibility to Nourished Magazine is certainly nourishing to everyone else. But there’s a hole in the equation. I forgot about me..
• Value your time and live in a balanced way - Pavlina says if you value your time because your self esteem/self love is strong, you won’t ever find yourself putting anything before your goal or your dream. I find this a little difficult to take from a this man since he obviously isn’t the main care giver of his children, most of his time is acutally his. However, my purpose is to nourish and nurture and, in fact, each moment I spend with my children is a chance to express this energy. An incongruent belief wanders in there sometimes. Somewhere I have picked up the belief that being with children is of lesser value than other activities. I’ll have to work on that one. Seems I’m not the only one, childcare workers are arguably the most underpaid people in Australia.
  Apart from this incongruency of beliefs, perhaps I need more balance. As well as giving nourishment to the children, the community I live in, the readers of this magazine, the women’s group I am part of, the dear husband, I need to give it to myself. I need to receive nourishment. So, next Thursday I’m going to yoga, everyday this week, I’m going to watch the sunrise. This week I’m going to have a facial and I’m going to admit to my women’s group that I have a twisted aversion to self nourishment. Maybe they can help me.
• Conscious Procrastination - This wonderful invention of Pavlina’s is the delicious practice of putting off all the tasks and activities that don’t align with your mission and doing only those things which will bring you to your goal faster, first. Book keeping is not one of them, that’s why I leave it to the last minute. Speaking to negative people is another duty I can leave behind. Answering emails and fiddling around on You Tube is another. This is a great way to ensure your activity is always congruous with your goal and you do the most congruous activity first.
• Set aside uninterrupted time for completing tasks. Steve Says “The state of flow, where you are totally absorbed in a task and lose all sense of time, takes about 15 minutes to enter. Every time you get interrupted, it can take you another 15 minutes to get back to that state.” That means no phone calls, msn, emails, helping children with homework, shopping, cooking, washing, washing up etc. Really the only time I can achieve this is when the kids are asleep or when they are at school. Pavlina also suggests rather than read emails and skip around the internet all day, you set aside email time - 1/2 hour and reading blogs and forums - 1/2 hour. That doesn’t seem that much time but is that chain letter email or arguing with that blogger really going to get you closer to your goal? To achieve this time management practise and create large blocks of time, I need to get up earlier. As it turns out, I have begun doing just that. It’s getting easier for me to awake at 5.30 and I hope to make this even earlier.
• Cultivate Enthusiasm - Steve Says, the word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek entheos, which means literally, “the god within.” I really like that definition. I doubt it’s possible to master the art of time management if you aren’t gushingly enthusiastic about what you’re going to do with your time. The best way to do this is follow the practises above so I’m always fresh and to spend time with dear husband getting excited about our projects together.

If I make these changes and continue to ask for (and surrender to) the blessing I received this morning, I’m sure to enjoy my nourishing journey all the more and I’ll likely look back in a few years time on all we have achieved and be doubly astounded. Ah such gratitude arises.

So dear reader what do you make of this raptuous outburst? Are you, like me, grappling with these issues? Do you have any answers (or questions) you can share? Please go ahead and comment.

About the Author...

Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).