Last night before I went to bed I wrote a rather long and itemized “to do” list for the weekend…. I thought writing everything down would help me relax and chill out. Nope. The opposite happened.

I was in bed planning out the next four days. Trying to figure out how to cram in everything I “wanted” to do: yoga, bike riding, cooking, grocery shopping, laundry, hanging out with friends, freelance writing, newspaper reading, taking a long bath, book reading, Remicade appointment, blog writing…

Needless to say, I ended up staying later than I had planned and had a rather fitful sleep.

On Thursday I had planned my Friday to be: early morning ride, freelance writing, yoga, lunch, meet up with friends in the afternoon, and more freelance writing.

Well, it’s Friday and this plan is not happening. Something clicked in my brain when I woke up this morning. I decided to figure out what on my list of “to do’s” was most important in enabling me to have a relaxing and fruitful four days. Freelance writing. Get this all done this morning and then the weekend is mine.

So, as much as I wanted to go to yoga today. I know that I can go tomorrow and Monday morning (especially if I get this writing done). I will ride my bike but instead I’ll ride my Barrhaven bike outside – I can enjoy the fresh air and get some easy relaxation into my heart and soul. I can enjoy my meet-up with friends without obsessing over what I have to do in the afternoon.

Sigh of relief. For too long I’ve lived my life with “to do” lists and things I had “to do”. Not anymore. There I things I want to do. There is nothing that I absolutely need to do. (Okay, working, sleeping, eating are things I need to do – but you know what I mean.) If the laundry doesn’t get done – oh well – I can do it tomorrow. There is no point in rushing to get to yoga and getting home afterwards – kind of defeats the purpose of yoga… Same goes for the bike riding – this is my priority since I’m in training mode but when it’s a recovery/rest day – I should respect this and not get up at the crack of dawn to ride for 45 minutes on the trainer.

Suddenly just by writing all this down I feel taller and lighter. I’m also writing this down so I can be held accountable. If you sense that I’m sliding into my life-long habits – hit me on the head with this blog post. I’m serious. It’s easy to slip back into old habits and I know that my health and well-being will be so much better if I can just let go of the constant “to do’s”.