Practices and preferences

 

Yesterday, we huddled and hovered around the questions, what is your best?  I pray you found some responses or even lived some replies to this question yesterday.  Today, we continue to ponder the questions of Mr. Bungay Stanier, adding onto yesterday, when are you at your best?  This could be a time of day.  I am at my best in the morning.  One of the first things I do each morning is write, because this is when I have my most energy. I am rested and just had breakfast.  I am a morning person.  From 8 am to 11 am is what Carey Nieuwhof would call my “Green Zone” – when I am in a state of flow.  However, my college-aged children are the exact opposite.  I am a morning lark; they are night owls.  My kids seem to hit their stride about 9 pm each night, just when I am winding down and ready to lay my head down to sleep and pray to the Lord my soul to keep.  When are you at your best?  You may need to take some time to pay attention to your own energy throughout the day for a few weeks to see if there is a trend.  You could be an afternoon person.  You may find that right after lunch you have energy and feel alive.  Or maybe while others hit the 4 pm slump, you are ready to dive into a project before dinner.  As you consider time of day, think also about what are your practices and preferences?  For me when I am writing, I turn off my devices and ignore my email.  I light a candle to remind myself I am in God’s presence.  I prefer quiet to write at my desk.  Other people love working and writing at coffee shops surrounded by a holy hum.  Others seek out others and go talk through an idea with someone.  Some like music playing in the background, like a soundtrack to their work, others not so much.  Some do breathing exercises and center their thoughts, others dive right into.  As you consider what is your best, describe and define the “weather” conditions that help support and sustain you ~ the rituals and routines that feed/fuel your best.  This could be what you eat, times of day, to a special place, and the more descriptive you can be ~ the better.  The more this question can help you explore the curriculum of your life where God is showing up.  May the questions, what is your best and under what conditions you are at your best continue to sing to your soul in these days.  Amen.