Summoning 6 – Being Present #DoMagick

I got up a bit late this morning so I found myself rushing through the ritual, but I did focus and meditate on what I needed my muse for while in the car on the way to the office. In a recent video, an author friend of mine mentioned a little book called The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner.  This sounded like something right up my ally so I downloaded the Audible today and listened to it while I crunched numbers. I even had an opportunity to put some of the what book suggested into practice.

The main thing — take overwhelming, big tasks, break them into smaller tasks, and then do them slowly. The idea behind it is that if you do this, you are being present in what you’re doing and you are happier in what you do when you’re focused. There is something to this madness because for the first time in a long time – I had my entire payroll for 40 people prepped by 6pm tonight. It probably helped that I didn’t have a lot of missing invoices, and that the time cards were in order, and things were turned in. I’m going to try it again tomorrow and see if I can’t have the entire payroll completed by 1pm. In which case I can have it all packaged and ready to go by 4pm tomorrow, ready for distribution on Wednesday. Now – the whole being present bit is not a new concept to me, but it was a reminder about how easy it is to get so caught up in all the to-do’s and distractions with other projects that we forget to be present.  Being present is very calming and relaxing to the mind. This is why so many people find contentment and satisfaction in cleaning. Because when do we feel most present? When it’s just us and the task at hand and nothing else. Not to mention with cleaning, you get instant gratification. Same thing with crafting, art, music, writing.

I think this was a lesson I needed to be reminded of because it doesn’t just apply to doing the payroll, but it also applies to my art. It regenerates my muse. So what started as a rushed, overwhelming day turned into me taking charge of my day and getting a lot done at my day job. I am still banking on the idea that all of this will start translating to words. When I’m at the office, I focus on what’s going on at the office. When I’m with my husband I focus on what’s going on with him. When I’m doing a live video, I am focusing on what I’m speaking about. When I’m writing this blog entry, nothing else exists.  I need to take this to my writing now – embrace my muse, and leave everything else outside my office door.  Nothing new or groundbreaking, but again – it was something I needed to be reminded of. It has completely shifted the way I am viewing my process and my schedule.