Take Time to Notice

I'm a bit strapped for ideas of what to write but I want to write anyway so am employing my 15-minute 'free flow' writing exercise to get this post out. It's not that I'm at a loss for words, more that I have so much going on that I don't know where to start... so what I'm going to do is just write and see what comes out.

Taking time to notice is a habit that I am learning to develop and the first idea that popped into my head as I started to write so we'll flow down this path and see where the trail leads. I know that we live in a day and age where we are in auto-pilot much of the time... going to work, doing the same basic things day in and day out and I think we sometimes get so caught up in the mundane, or even the chaos of the demands of everyday living that we don't even notice when something 'ruffles' our emotions or pain or discomfort in our bodies are trying to tell us to slow down. Often my life blurs from one day to the next as I repeat the same things over and over, especially with two small children who often need to have things repeated to them time and again while they're learning. And that's fine. I recognize the necessity of the 'season' of life that I'm in at the moment, but as I'm really starting to take notice of my emotions, my energy levels, my health and wellbeing on this peace journey that I'm on, I am becoming more and more aware of how I'm feeling internally at any given moment. Once upon a time I almost took pride in my ability to squash my emotions, especially the negative ones or the ones I associated with 'weakness' but I'm learning not to do that anymore. My emotions are like an indicator of my internal state at any given moment, and just like it would be silly to ignore a unusual lump in a certain part of my body and just hope that it would resolve itself, I can really see that noticing and acknowledging emotions - negative and positive - helps me become more aware of myself, how I react to certain environments, and possibly warning signs that things may not be as they should be and action should be taken. Taking the time to notice for me has helped me become more honest with myself which then has helped me become more 'real' with God and others and to live a more congruent life, which I think is essential to living in peace (I've spoken about this before.) Noticing doesn't require lots of effort and once you make the decision to do it, you'll be amazed at what you discover that you have possibly been tuning out. The biggest challenge after noticing is what you'll do with your discoveries but I do believe that this is a key step to walking in peace. Time's up... til next time. :)