Take a moment to think of all the thoughts you’ve had today. Wow, that’s a lot, huh? I think it’s important to take time from time to time to really examine the contents of our own minds. I call this a mental real estate inventory.

What thoughts are occupying your time? If you could make a pie chart of your thoughts into categories, what kinds of thoughts are occupying the most space? What thoughts are no longer serving you? Do you procrastinate? Procrastination takes mental energy. You still hold space for the things you are avoiding doing. Think of procrastinating as your present self stealing from your future self. Do you obsess? Do you worry? These are ways of using your mental energy to live in the past or project into the future. In order to do this inventory, you have to be real honest with yourself. Your present self is creating your future self.

We have limited time, energy, and mental real estate space so knowing that these are our most precious resources, it is important to take note of how we are spending them. Is there anything in your pie chart that needs to shift into a smaller piece of the pie or something that you need to let go of?

How do you know when you need to do a real estate inventory? You could always schedule it as maintenance on the regular, like an oil change. You can do this when you feel pressured for time or stress building up. You can do this when you want to create something new. You can do this when you’re tired of your own BS. You can do this when you are ready to grow.

It’s important to mention that when you look at yourself through this lens, you may need to spend some time going deeper into why you think the way you do. It’s also important not to beat yourself up for the things you realize about yourself. I almost fell into that trap today.

The results of my inventory revealed that there is one area of my pie chart that could go. Letting that part go would free up mental real estate. It creates space for what’s next. This practice of mental inventory and letting go is a simple (but sometimes challenging) practice of vairagya, or non-attachment.

This evening, I made a playlist, pulled out my hand weights, and had a dance party/workout sesh/shadowboxing/yoga practice. One of my friends recently asked me to make a yoga class that will help channel his testosterone-fueled rage because he doesn’t really want all the love and peace and calm… sometimes he just wants to hit stuff. I didn’t really feel like hitting anything but I needed to shed some energy.

Some yogis practice hand gestures, or mudras. It’s said that if you arrange your fingers in a particular way, it will being about a certain energy. I am very into this form of yoga today. It is my hope that by practicing this mudra, I released some of the stuff that isn’t serving my highest good. Namaste Motherf*ckers! 🙂