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Advice & More April 2012

Age-Full Living

Simple Tools Can Be a Big Help with Change

By Sue Ronnenkamp

    Let me share a very simple tool that has been the biggest help to me with initiating changes in my own life. Best part: it's something most of you likely have in your home right now.

    Many people are thinking about trying something new or making some kind of change. If you fall into either of these categories, let me share a very simple tool that has been the biggest help to me with initiating changes in my own life. Best part: it's something most of you likely have in your home right now. What's the tool I'm talking about? It's a digital timer.

    This simple and inexpensive tool is something I've been using to support my change process since 1996. That's when I decided to learn how to meditate. I still remember just how hard it was to quiet my mind for even five minutes at a time. But I kept working at it and kept increasing the time set on my digital timer until I was able to comfortably meditate and give my mind a rest for 30 minutes. Even after all these years of practice, I still use a timer when I meditate. It allows me to forget about the clock until it goes off and tells me it's time to come back to the present and engage in the busy world once again.

    The timer was so helpful with my meditation practice that I kept using it as a tool for making other changes. Right now my timer is helping me with stretching and flexibility. Several times a week, I practice a series of six gentle yoga poses and use my timer so I hold each of these stretches long enough to feel the effect and to help my muscles lengthen. Some of these sessions still feel like they last an eternity -- so I know I have a long way to go. But the timer is helping me to stick with it. It also gives me a gauge to measure and judge my progress by -- something that's very important to me when I'm trying to incorporate a new practice into my life.

    My timer was also a big help when I made the transition from one form of work to another. I've been self-employed for over a decade, but the work for my last business came in waves of great intensity followed by recovery time with little or no schedule. Now I do different types of project work and this requires that I put in regular hours of work each week. When I made this switch, I figured out pretty quickly that I needed help with structuring and using my time in a more disciplined manner.

    Again, I turned to my digital timer for help. First, I'd set it for only a couple of hours -- promising myself that if I could focus in for this length of time, I could take a short break. As with past changes in my life, I slowly increased the time as I got more comfortable with this new routine. Now I set the timer for the hours I want to put in and forget about watching the clock. This allows me to zero in on my work until the buzzer goes off and reminds me that it's time to take a well- deserved break.

    I hope my story is a reminder that change doesn't come naturally to most of us. What's often needed to be successful is a willingness to keep experimenting until you find the things that work for you. Then apply some persistence, and trust that even the smallest tools can help and support the change process.

     

    Sue Ronnenkamp is the creator and founder of Age-Full Living, a positive aging education and consulting firm that focuses on the positive aspects, opportunities and gifts of growing older. For more information, visit Sue's website at www.AgeFullLiving.com.

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