Making Hay

There haven't been many of these evenings this July have there, making the old adage of 'making hay' seems even more appropriate. I've been thinking a lot recently about putting things off, why we do that and the impact it has on us.

I talked recently in an Instagram post about procrastinating and how certain systems in our brains encourage us to "park" the things we don't want to do in favour of something easier, more interesting or just simply makes us feel good.

It made me wonder if procrastination and avoidance are the same thing or if not, what the differences are? There seem to be no conclusive data on this and lots of differing opinions as to their definitions. Either way, avoidance and procrastination are reactions to fear in some way, the task or action makes us feel vulnerable and we want to shut that feeling down because ultimately it make us feel unsafe.

This relief is of course only temporary, we can only stave off the negative emotions for a period of time before the "thing" circles back round again, and we often repeat the cycle, adding more pressure on to ourselves and things become more pressing, urgent and overdue.

Being curious and asking questions is the best way to break this cycle, understanding where the fear lies is helpful and talking it through with someone you trust is even better.

Offloading our fears, however real they are and starting to look for evidence ourselves, or from others, that can uncover if our fears ar valid or just a story we're telling ourselves is an extremely effective way to break the cycle. Focusing on the things you can do and how the reward of completing something you've been avoiding will feel are good strategies to try.

So, I'm taking my own advice and doing just that, the sun is shining and there's hay to make - what am I waiting for?