I live in a beautiful area of New Zealand, 35 minutes from central Auckland and a million miles away from noise, traffic and frenetic lifestyle that was once my ‘home’. So to truly appreciate this wonderful country vista and to exercise our two miniature schnauzer dogs, my partner and I try to walk the country roads at least three times a week.
Recently we set out in preparation for a longer walk as we were preparing to walk a 10k in the SBS marathon in Christchurch. After about 10 mins, I felt a tiny stone/pebble in one of my shoes! So my focus turned from appreciating the vista to this annoying inconvenience in my shoe. I moved my foot around in the shoe as I walked and couldn’t feel it any more, so kept walking. After a while the pebble moved again just enough for me to feel it…an annoyance and distraction, rather than anything painful. So I carried on walking aware of it all the way there and back and being distracted from being present to my inspiring vista!
Later in the day, I reflected on this experience and how we often have these little tolerations in our lives and like my experience that morning, I did nothing about it even though it became a distraction to my peaceful and energising walk. Tolerations are those things in our lives that we do nothing about even though they distract us, annoy us and sometimes even divert us from our journey. It can be as small as a door not closing properly, a light bulb needing replacing, or perhaps an untidy room, or car. At work it might be a disorganised desk or office, an out of date staff notice board, or even bigger you are in a job that no longer interests or energises you! No matter how small or how large your toleration, it has a slow but sure accumulative effect on your wellbeing and sense of peace in your life. Tolerations become a subtle or not so subtle block to you being present and at your best. If this resonates with you, there are a few things you can do to eliminate them from your life.
- Identify your tolerations – Write a list of the things you are tolerating on a daily basis, no matter how small or how large… get it out of your head and name it!
- Prioritise the list into small/easy to change and large/not so easy to change.
- Now ask yourself, do I want it to be different? If the answer is YES, then commit to eliminating one thing on the list over the next week.
- Now put some timelines for elimination beside each item on your list… under promise so you over deliver to yourself.
- How does it feel? It’s as easy as making the decision and then committing to it! Enjoy your toleration free life!
About Patti Gwynne
