Getting YOUR Priorities Right

Instructions for "Getting YOUR Priorities Right":
It will be helpful to set a reminder on your phone to go off once or twice a day, at different times of the day. You want the reminders to be random, and to cover many different areas of your life over the course of the week. 

1. When the reminder goes off, stop what you're doing and take a couple of mindful belly breaths. 
2. Slowly scan the environment you're in. Take in the people you're surrounded by, and the objects around you.
3. Look at what you're doing, whether it's work, a home chore, recreation, a conversation—notice it. 
4. Now ask yourself: What places/people/things would I still want around me in 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?
5. Note down the first things that come into your head, try not to question it too much. 
6. At the end of the week, go over your list, and see if you'd like to make some changes, AND, very importantly, be consciously grateful for the things you have in your life that you would still like to have with you in the future. 

This is a wonderful practice to help us see what is good in our lives. For instance, you might be so used to waking up with your partner that you forget to notice what a lovely thing it is to share your life with this person. You might be so frazzled having the kids off school that you don't notice the joy that they are. Notice what's good in your life and be grateful for it.
This exercise also serves to highlight where change might be needed. Sometimes it can feel like life is happening to us. We may make choices based on what is expected from us, or from what everyone else is doing. We might chose to do something because it is the 'safe' option, or because it is familiar. Or, we simply may not believe in ourselves and our power to make our own choices.

Your life is yours. For the most part, you can do with it what you wish, and if you don't stop and pay attention, you may find it's too late to take that journey you dreamed of, try that career you thought you might be good at, be with the person you love, or appreciate the wonderful things that you have. 
If you were to look back at your life in 30 years, what would you want to remember?

---

"I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness."
- Walt Whitman

---