Maintainable and Sustainable
Managing life with practices we can maintain creates sustainability
Sustainable. Maintainable.
These two words came to me this morning during my walk around the lake (pictured below).
We hear lots about sustainability, which is the word I initially considered while walking.
Recycling and reusing
Buying fewer single-use products and plastics (🤢so much plastic)
What will the world look like for my child, based on my use and ability to contribute to the sustainability of this life?
My thoughts then travelled to…What house will we have in the future, what size yard, what will the pool space be like, and the lake, and what about some land in North Carolina…?!
And then it hit me…
What size house can I maintain with ease?
What type of yard and pool can I maintain, do I want to maintain?
There are just three of us, how much do we actually need?
How much is too much? What is the right amount of something that we can easily, realistically maintain without losing control, without creating something that is not sustainable?
Life has gotten so big, so out of hand in so many ways.
We try to maintain a schedule that isn’t sustainable.
When we push to sustain things or force things into being, we find some things begin to overwhelm us, and then sometimes things just plain fall-to-pieces.
How can we have a, b, and c,
(all the things we think we want or need)
and also maintain x, y, and z
(the life-sustaining pieces)?
How do we maintain all of “it” in order to create a sustainable life…a life of peace, ease, free from stress, enjoyable?
It dawned on me this morning…
I believe the answer lies in the ability to develop patterns, habits, and practices that we can easily, realistically maintain which then, in turn, allow us to sustain a life worth having, a life we love.
Maintaining: Body. Home. Family…Life.
Managing our world, our spaces of body, home, family…through practices that we can effortlessly maintain…we can sustain a pleasing, peaceful, efficient life.
Before “it," the schedules, culture, busy-ness of life, eats us alive, destroys our ability to pause and listen to our intuition, to God…
We need to consider:
What patterns or habits are in place now that are difficult to maintain?
Where, in the space of my day, do I feel overwhelmed? What is overwhelming to me each day?
What habits are in place that I love or need?
What are the almost-habits that I really enjoy that require a little more tending in order to instill them into each day?
What are my non-negotiables?
After careful consideration of the patterns or habits that are currently in place, the defaults, the ones that aren’t working, and the ones that do work, we can then set goals to maintain the good, easeful, nourishing, and necessary habits, patterns, and practices.
With goals set and easy to maintain, enjoyable habits in place, we set ourselves up for sustenance.
Sustaining: Practice. Habits. Patterns…Life.
Where do we start?
Begin by limiting, reducing, eliminating patterns and habits that decrease in some way your enjoyment, time, health, sanity.
Are you exhausted? What is your bedtime routine (habit)? Are you getting enough sleep? Limit, reduce, eliminate: screen / TV time in the evenings
Are you running out of time for the important things you need to accomplish each day? How much time are you on your phone, stalling, procrastinating? Limit, reduce, eliminate: social media, daydreaming, anxiety induced thoughts filled with “but what if…” (this is me! 🙋🏼♀️)
Is the family schedule crammed with activities? Limit, reduce, eliminate: the “thrive on chaos” energy…say “NO” to activities and events that drain family energy, that don’t offer sustenance
Habits are patterns. Patterns create habits.
We see patterns in our thoughts, in the sensations in our body fueled by thoughts and emotions, in our actions and inactions.
We see patterns in nature - seasons, high and low tides, the constellations.
The difference between nature and us…nature designs patterns out of sustainability, sustenance. Humans design and fall into patterns based on thought (some good, some not so good).
Here’s a personal example of a new pattern needed…
One weekday afternoon has gotten really busy with a quick turn-around required of my daughter and me. This new schedule has the ability to throw us into unhappy overwhelm, quick.
What’s needed?
A new pattern instilled into my day that evolves into an elegant habit that is easy and flowing for me, which then gets passed on to my daughter.
She is a beneficiary of my patterns and habits, which will either nourish and sustain her and our family, or not.
The new pattern will look something like this: 8am exercise, yoga/stretching, meditate, pray (ideally this would happen at 5 or 6am, but that requires a new bedtime pattern!); 9am begin work; 1pm wrap up work, lunch; 2pm off to school; 3pm homework and light meal for daughter (3-4pm must strictly be about her; drop the phone/tech, fix the food, help with her work, get her ready); 4pm off for activity.
Once practiced frequently, the pattern becomes a habit, the habit requires no thought to be completed, the habit is realistically maintainable, a life of ease, peace, and joy is sustained at home!
Will I need to be flexible with this pattern on some days? Will it need to change completely sometimes? Yes, of course! But the physical sensation of “sustenance” versus angst, stress, or overwhelm will be so settled in my body, the change or flex needed on any given day won’t throw off the sustainability of a schedule, a life well maintained.
When things need to change, I’ll be flexible, serve my daughter’s needs as they arise at that time, and then put the pattern and habit to good use again next time.
It’s going to take some time, dedication, and maybe some re-working, but this is the anticipated pattern. And the primary goals…
Maintain & Sustain!
Final thoughts…
Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could maintain and sustain life like Mother Nature?
We can! It just takes some…
balancing - what’s important and needed, what’s not but still necessary
connecting - to the people and things we love
grounding - pausing, praying, listening
Perhaps the first delightful, easeful, basic practice to maintain…is one of gratitude. All of us wake in the morning and sleep at night. Upon waking and before sleeping, give thanks for the day.
What one practice can you maintain daily this week that will sustain your peace, time, health…?!
Join me on Friday’s podcast where we look at Maintain & Sustain as practice! We will set a goal and establish a maintainable practice!
Until then…
Lots of love to you!
xoxo Michelle
Here’s that moment at the lake when I wondered…”What do we actually need?!”
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