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How to Remain Mindful during Holiday Season Madness
Control the inputs to help influence the outcome
Hi all!
Early morning on Black Friday while sipping coffee and scrolling through my inbox, I came across a kind of hilarious and totally accurate phrase describing inboxes during this time of year (but I think it can apply to almost any place we consume content) … “the email chum bucket that is Black Friday.”
The visual I get from all of the information barraging our timelines, TVs, inboxes, and mailboxes is reminiscent of the debris that is thrown around in “Twister” - with social ads, TV commercials, promotional emails, and direct mailers all assaulting our senses nearly constantly.
Call it a chum bucket, a whirlwind, a dumpster fire, whatever - it’s all madness - and it seems incessant.
A strategy I find useful to combat the madness is to implement SYSTEMS or HABITS that minimize the impact these distractions have on my sanity.
A few suggestions you might want to try out yourself:
Social media apps - set app limits on your phone (here’s a helpful link from Apple’s site for iPhones). I set mine for 15 minutes a day across the entire category (not each app, that’s TOTAL).
TV Ads - implement a new HABIT of muting the TV when on commercial break
Email Inboxes - set up a “to review” folder in your email manager (Gmail or Outlook). As the distracting emails come in, select them and add them to this folder. Set aside ten minutes at the end of a week to blitz through them all and delete anything unnecessary. Bonus points if you “Unsubscribe” as well.
Physical Mail - set up a box next to your front door (maybe in a coat closet) that holds all of your recently received mail. The clearly urgent mail is read straight away, and the rest goes in the box. Same as the email inbox, set aside ten minutes at the end of a week to blitz through them all and shred or recycle anything unnecessary.
Setting up systems on the front end gives your brain a break from thinking it needs to handle all the noise RIGHT NOW.
Think about some systems or habits you can implement yourself to help transition the madness to mindfulness. You’ll benefit from greater peace, less anxiety, and a more focused approach on the CRITICAL FEW things that really matter day-to-day! That’s all for now.
Until next time -
Yours in Health,
Nolan
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