When your Soul List is more important than your To-Do List

Originally Posted March 6, 2014

As a mom and an entrepreneur there are a million things that I am trying to fit into my day/week/month etc. Its ongoing everyday more things get added to my To-Do list before I even manage to cross some of them off.

Can you relate? I think this happens for all of us, whether you are a mom, entrepreneur or neither.

Women today, in trying to be and do it all have a mile long To-Do list that we expect to get finished by a certain amount of time.

Last week I had a morning that had been booked for me to speak at an event about the benefits of Acupuncture during and after pregnancy, and Baby E had been committed to spending the morning at his child care for half the day. Last minute the event was cancelled and I found myself with a good portion of the day without true plans. The night before Baby E was up a few times in the middle of the night and I woke up not feeling 100%.

So I dropped Baby E off and when I got back to the house I decided to sit down and do some breath work and feel into how I needed to spend this new found time.

What came up first was all of the things I should be doing. Get the clinic ready for the next day, vacuum the house, work on some course material, start preparing the curriculum for my new program that I can’t wait to share with you, and….and….. My mind started to spin, and I immediately got overwhelmed.

So I took another breath and asked, “Where am I supposed to start?”

The Answer: “None of them!”

So I breathed into my body again and asked what I was supposed to do instead?

The Answer: “Take care of some of the things on your Soul list.”

My soul list, is the stuff I always would rather be doing, the activities that I day dream about and distract me from being fully present in my to-do list. If I would spend a little more time honouring my Soul List I would be more efficient and less distracted in accomplishing my other tasks.

So I went with it, I breathed in again and listened to what my soul required of me.

Answer: Gluten Free baking and dancing around my kitchen!

It felt good to feel that desire, my body said yes, my mind said finally, and so that’s what I did. I made

Gluten free/Dairy free muffins and danced around the kitchen to old school Enrique.

If our Soul List is neglected it sabotages our To-do list.

After I finished up, I still had some time to get another task of my regular list done before picking up the little man. My head was clear, my heart was happy and I was able to accomplish so much more not having that nagging back ground noise about all the other things I wished I was doing.

So I am officially committing to honour my Soul List daily. I invite you to honour yours. It doesn’t always have to be big tasks that take up huge amounts of time. It can be as simple as having a 5 min dance party in your kitchen, getting a mani-pedi over lunch or buying flowers in the shop you walk by on your way home from work, anything your heart desires.

We are busy women and there will always be a mountain of tasks that require our attention. Which makes it all the more important to take some time to breathe, check in honour ourselves. Why wait!

XO

Ashley