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I can't lie... I'm really bad about my inbox. I get emails from my favorite beauty blogs, retailers, and news sites that I genuinely want to read. I see them, I sometimes even open them, and then I save them for later for that unknown day when I will have the time to actually go through them... but then that day never comes because, if I am being honest, there are a million other things in the REAL world that I would rather read, rather pay attention to or do with that time. Then, as time passes by, those emails that I save (with the best of intentions) start to build up. There is a point when they will reach critical mass and the mere sight of them overwhelms me (don't worry, I'm usually very good at keeping up on personal/business mail... it's just the superfluous fodder that builds up). The thing is, I don't like that feeling. I don't like that something which, in all actuality, does not matter, makes such an impact on my mind (short lived though it may be, mini stressers build into big stressers over time and I don't like that fact).
As I stared at my inbox this morning I began to think about all of the things I allow to fill my mental 'inbox'... cheesy I know, but roll with me. If we are constantly filing things away, saving them for later, we are setting ourselves up for failure or frustration (not just with ourselves but with the people attached to the 'mental emails'). I don't know about you, but my (mental/emotional) spam folder is almost always full, bursting at the seems, trying to leech into my daily life (a gremlin sitting on my shoulder trying to distract me from what is really important). There are things (mentally) marked as priority- family matters, to dos and then there is all the junk which so easily builds up and tries to take over.
My question, dear reader, is this- How do we filter it all without getting overwhelmed?
My current idea is that I need to go through and figure out what is actually of interest and what can be deleted, what I want to add to my life and what I can let go of. Same idea as the old saying, "how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time..." I (you) can get through a full inbox, mental, physical, emotional... whatever the case may be. The key is to (as with most things in life) give ourselves grace and take it all down, one piece (email) at a time.
xx
*Photo I snapped in Brooklyn... something about these two amazing artists- they never lived through an era of digital distraction... do you think that fact allowed them to be more mentally free and creative?
