Do you ever wonder if the universe might be trying to tell you something? Let me explain. A year or so ago a colleague sent me an email link to a YouTube video with this gentleman Greg McKeown doing a talk about “essentialism.”
This Friday’s Confession is about essentialism and why I think about it every time I wash my hands.
I know what essential means but I hadn’t yet heard of this modified term before. I thought the talk was great and put forward some good provocations but I quickly moved on continuing with my old habits.
But just last week I was reminded of this concept again. Like you, I get a whole host of unsolicited emails and they mostly go into a junk folder. But one somehow made it through and it was a note connected to a new podcast that Mr. McKeown had launched in June. It’s title was friendly enough for me to open the email.
It was called “One Minute Wednesday: protect the asset.” I was curious enough and felt I could spare a minute. When I popped it up and I had a vague recollection of the talk I had watched on YouTube a year or so earlier so I read through the email and it was a key point from his recent podcast with essential worker Emily Stewart, a nurse on the frontline of COVID in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
Full disclosure I have yet to listen to the whole podcast though as a podcast junkie, I have no doubt I will be bingeing it soon. In the “One Minute Wednesday” email, Stewart said; every time you wash your hands check in with yourself nothing major, Just be aware of how you are doing.
Essentialism
Below are her key three points and after I read them it affected me so much that every time I wash my hands, I think about being essential. That I am essential. So perhaps every time you wash your hands you can think about how essential you are and this might help you through your day as it’s helping me through my days, especially through this pandemic.
Here is the excerpt:
Start here with these tiny steps:
1) When you wash your hands do a Micro Health Check-In.
2) Ask yourself: How are you? How is your body? Your mind? Heart? Spirit?
3) Just be aware. Don’t try to make a big change from what you learn.
This is like a meeting with yourself. Just like meeting someone and asking, “How are you?”
The answer matters. Because you matter. You are essential.
Wrapping Up
I hope you enjoyed today’s confession. If you’d like to read more stories like this, check out our Friday Confession archives!
And if you’d like to share your own confession with us, contact me and we’d be happy to feature your story.
Leave a Reply