Stopping and Starting

When your head feels muddly with all the billion and one things you have got to do, and the twenty thousand others you probably won’t get around to, when life feels like the kind of steep stairs a person could develop vertigo on and when you can’t follow your dreams for having to put out all the fires your nightmares keep setting alight, there is only one thing to do.

And that is to stop.

Stop eating nonsense that makes your tummy hurt. Stop pretending to be someone you are not. Stop gossiping. Stop losing entire evenings to rubbish television. Stop being so very careless about your finances.

Stop drinking wine. Stop screeching at the kids. Stop texting all day long and long into the small hours. Stop eating copious amounts of blue cheese. Stop agreeing to go places that make you feel as if you have two heads. Stop worrying about the size of your bum.

Stop regretting everything. Stop choosing elevenses over laundry. Stop skipping meals. Stop arguing for the sake of it. Stop lying. Stop telling the truth. Stop refusing to leave your comfort zone. Stop worrying.

Stop convincing yourself no-one will ever love you again. Stop pretending you are hopeless. Stop forgetting. Stop forgiving. Stop eating tinned soup. Stop dating men you don’t like. Stop shopping daily. Stop avoiding your medication for heaven knows what reason. Stop watching Jeremy Kyle. Stop wanting.

Stop coveting. Stop creating piles instead of putting things away. Stop avoiding necessary conversations. Stop biting your nails. Stop laughing when it’s not funny. Stop saying yes. Stop saying I can’t when clearly you can. Stop being frightened. Stop serving everything with mayo. Stop losing hours browsing around the internet. Stop driving everywhere.

Stop it. All of it.

Just stop it.

Breathe. Do nothing. Don’t imagine that you have got to fix everything right this minute. Concentrate instead on stopping all the bad habits and focusing on addressing just ONE area of your life. The one area upon which everything else is floundering. The weight, the mess or the relationship. The kid who seems a little lost. The health problems that are getting you down.

Do one thing at a time.

Throw yourself at it, wholly. Body and mind.

Let everything else stay exactly as it is while you throw your whole being at mending one area of your life and seeing how magically everything else starts to neatly fall in to place.

Start today. Start now.