An idle mind is a devil's workshop

As Saturday is a holiday, I am more and more convinced that I am someone who can't feel good about a holiday. I am confused on what to do. Moreover, the free time just gives me so many thoughts about life, that I am more and more convinced that an idle mind is really a devils workshop. Today as I write this, just 15 minutes ago I was obsessed with my face. Looking at my face over and over again and looking for any dark spots. In fact, the reality is I do have a couple on my face. But the idea of simply focusing on that made me extremely sad about it. I have realised with time that it's okay. You got to be comfortable in your own company first. It's okay to feel that way. It's okay to be with the pain for a while. I in fact had the same skin over the last 5 days where I was working. However, because I do not have work today, I have these thoughts that keep on disturbing me again and again. I need to get over these thoughts and try to think positively. The best way to think positively is to be busy when such thoughts come in. Embrace the pain and then let go. 

Opportunity in adversity

As I was looking at my face, for some reason, I just drifted into a few YouTube videos that were about skin care. I realised that I was taking hot showers very regularly, which was making my skin dry and because of that, there was more production of oil on my skin. This caused small acnes that irritated my personal mindset. The good thing is that it's good that I did get some insecurity for a while but then I was back on track and in fact, I was moisturising my face. It was an incredible turn of events where I started from insecurity and then started doing self-care. Maybe this was a way for life to come in between and tell me that you need to do self-care routines for yourself. Gently putting the moisturiser on my face really helped. I don't know if I will see the results on my skin very early, but at least one step in the right direction is still important. It's the adversity of focusing on the dark spots of my skin, that gave rise to the solution of applying moisturiser on my face. 

Being busy

I think as such small issues come up in life, I also realised how important it is to go out and be busy. Sometimes we don't realise that while we are working in the office, we don't get these sort of thoughts about life. We don't obsessively check our face. We are just what we are. We see people in the eye and talk and the whole issue about ourselves that goes low. We are not focused on ourselves. One of the mistakes people make is that they are too focused on themselves, their own insecurities, flaws and setbacks. But when you are with people it's best that you focus on them and not on you. That way you will not be in your head. 

Apologies for drifting in the topic, but the point here is that an idle mind is a devil's workshop. Let's consider a short story out here. Imagine you are free and you are simply scrolling through instagram, or YouTube or anything of that sort. Now the you are scrolling a sudden thought appears, "Did my manager say something about so and so and did I say something wrong in that meeting?" . Now look at the trajectory, out here. Oh what if I said something wrong, maybe my manager will be upset. Oh damn, if he is upset, my career won't be going in the right direction, oh shoot. What if things don't work out for me. Oh what if I lose my job, all of these thoughts will come in. There will be restlessness. 

But in that very moment, what if you decide to get up and clean your desk. What if you decide to clean your house. What if you decide to wear your clothes and go to the gym. What if you decide to go to shopping? All of your thoughts will just vanish away. You won't have to take care of the stress and worries that you have yourself created. In fact, the stress you created is not even real. It's just a thought that produced a chain of thoughts. 

Let's get to some practical tips to stay busy. 

Plan

I think one of the best ways is to plan. Plan your Saturday as well. Doing this a night before is a great idea. When you plan things, you naturally get out of your head and live in the moment more. Moreover, you also have dedicated time for self-care routines when you plan your day. The most important thing is that you really breathe in deeply. When you do deep breathing, that's when you are free of anxiety and your nervous system overall is calmer. 

Work

Going to work. One idea is to head off to the office even on weekends and work there. Although, I don't recommend that because the body does need some rest. You can do some courses online during the time. But my point here is that you can fill your time doing some interesting and challenging work. If the work is challenging, I am sure you will be able to stick to it and move forward and do something really interesting at work. You can do courses that help your work as well. 

Meditate

This is definitely not going to be all day but having some time to meditate will usually make you feel better. The more you meditate the better you will get at self-control. The added self-control will make you feel happier in life. But spend some time meditating in life. That's where you will get your intuitions and thoughts that you might not really get elsewhere. 

Hobbies

You can have hobbies like reading books. Playing sports. Playing guitar. Singing. Dancing. Acting. You can spend your time doing all of that on Saturday's. Currently I am planning to learn Casio. So whenever I am free at home, I can learn Casio and play some music in there. Music is something that has really attracted me not now, but throughout. You can also go travel to a certain place if you would like. Think big.  You can also learn cooking out here. 

Workout

Now workout, learning about workout, all of these are great things that you can do throughout your day. When you are doing things that really challenge you, that's the place where you really grow. If it's not challenging enough, it's not worth it. Make sure that you go out for workout at least once a day. That will make you feel better. You will feel stronger. You will feel like yourself. Moreover, you will feel that something productive was achieved today. 

Reading

This is my go to thing. In fact, more than anything. I just love reading books. It can be about anything. The idea is that I set a timer for 30 minutes and then simply read for those 30 minutes. Those 30 minutes when you read, when you get the context, you eventually feel like reading for 30 more minutes. The more important thing during such a reading session is silence. When you break down your day into 30 minute sessions or one hour sessions, you are more likely to read. You are more likely to do the things you want to. After all, you do feel in control during such a time. Sometimes in order to find a challenge in reading, find a genre that you usually don't read about. For example, you might not read mystery books. Go read mystery books. Go to Starbucks or some coffee place and be there and simply read. What this does is that when you have invested in coffee, you would want to make sure the reading and the experience overall is worth it. That will make you spend more time at the cafe itself. 

Meetups

I have not seen this before. But I believe for some people meeting new people is challenging and out of their comfort zone. What people like this need to do is go to meet-up.com and then meet people over common interest. I am not sure about how good these are, but I can tell you that it's a great way to connect with people who are unknown. It makes you familiar with the unknown part of world. I believe there are some book clubs there which are great to go to. 

Stay away from your phone (except for learning something or productive apps)

The idea is that when you stay way from your phone, you will naturally be bored and be creative about life. You will feel like going out somewhere, you won't have an easy distraction to lean on to. I have personally learnt this the hard way that I usually am more grounded when I am away from the phone. It helps me have more depth in life in general. 

Structure

The point is that you need to live a life of structure even on holidays. Like I said, it's okay to have hiccups, in fact it really helps when you have hiccups, you start improving your structure due to the hiccups. So they are an important part of the journey. Make sure that you maintain your structure of living. When you maintain the structure you will for sure not slip away into distractions, overthinking or ruminations about life. 

Stoic thought

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” - Seneca. I love this thought by Seneca. We suffer more in imagination than in reality. Like my story suggests, I was thinking random thoughts about how my face looked and focused too much on it. Maybe it does not look as bad as I think. In fact it's these small insecurities that we need to overcome. That's why Seneca says, we suffer more in imagination than in reality. When I go out, I do not think about whether I am looking good or not because I am just what I am. 

Stoicism in general teaches us to control what is inside and not on what is the outside. Other people's opinions and what people think of us is not under our control. But what we can do is the work we put in, the thoughts we have, and the energy we give to the world. 

Moreover, one should always seek an opportunity within adversity. After all, I learnt about moisturising my face when I had such thoughts. 

Conclusive thoughts

While I encourage everyone to stay busy, I also caution them that busyness is not always about moving fast. It also means to step back when one has to. What I am trying to address today is making sure that our minds are in the right place. Making sure that we really think through what we need to do during the day. Making sure we have structure at the right place. Making sure, we are living through planning. An action point I will recommend at this point is that give yourself some time. Some time just for yourself to plan what needs to be done. 30 minutes of silence and a book and paper. Then come up with the list. Your initial one will take 30 minutes then 5 minutes of planning will prove more effective than the entire day. 

I hope you have a wonderful day or night ahead ! Make sure you take care of yourself and sleep well !