When you're washing the dishes, wash the dishes

A wise friend of mine quoted the above zen/budhist phrase recently. It essentially means concentrate on what you are doing at that time to the exclusion of other distractions. In this busy society we, particularly women, are expected (either by themselves or others) to multi-task. However, it is much more productive to do one thing at a time. CFS affects my memory so attempting several things at once is not a good idea. Having said that I just listened to Radio 4 whilst doing my work emails (note to self: must try to practice what I preach). Now the radio is off and I am just writing my blog. It is hard to slow yourself down when you are used to charging about. I have had this enforced upon me, which is even harder as it appears to take the element of control away, something that as humans, we do not like to have taken from us. Actually, I can take control and I must learn to do this by that dreadful word 'pacing'. I prefer 'planning'. I am a natural planner. My timesheet did not work very well last week, so instead I am noting high and medium level activities in my diary, which I look at daily, take an overview of the week and attempt to slot rest periods in around it. I'm not sure if that will work any better. Already I have had to change today because a friend I havent seen for a year is visitng me on Thursday. I managed a swim today, the local pool is open again but they had lanes marked off so I couldn't do widths. I did however manage 8 lengths in 20 minutes. The pool is 25m in length, so I am pleased with that.  I went prepared this time with salted cholocate and that helped. Last weekend I managed to help some friends weed my mother's garden on Saturday for a few hours, and I managed to attend the harbour festival on Sunday, stick in hand and keeping a keen eye out for empty benches. I kept urging my friends to go off without me, fearful of making them feel obliged to stay with me, but they said it was nice to sit and do things at a slower pace. And I hope they meant that! I started a six week course of reflexology last Tuesday, and am off there again shortly. I'm not sure what it's doing but I felt good Tuesday and then had a low mood Wednesday, but that could be to do with some news in my personal life I am trying not to worry about. I still reiki daily and meditate and this is proving useful. I have noted that although I think I am not worrying, and my shoulders are less tense and I generally feel calmer and more relaxed, I am grinding my teeth. I keep catching myself do it and it's not something I recall ever doing before. Hmm.