Unconsciously committed to making each day heavier than it needs to be

It’s called enlightenment because we feel lighter.

Our shoulders drop, our eyes soften, our hearts rest and our blood drops. The sudden insight into reality that we awaken to is, holy crap, we can finally let go of the pressure to carry around all this psychic weight.

Phew. What an exhale of the soul.

Sadly, many people are unconsciously committed to making each day heavier than it needs to be. These boulders people kick over their shoulders seem heroic on the surface, but they’re typically more trouble than they’re worth.

Think about a friends or colleague you’ve had in the past who spent the bulk of their time on tasks that absorbed their energy, but gave almost nothing back to them. Or someone you worked with who loved wading into high effort low reward waters, only to curse the undertow for taking them out to sea.

Didn’t their heaviness break your heart? Didn’t you hope that there was some part of them that wanted deliverance from that problem?

It pains me to see people carrying around this kind of psychic weight. Because I’ve been that person before. Sometimes I still am. That’s a pernicious trait of workaholism that often hides in plain sight.

Unlike some other addictions where the effects are more visible, like alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, whatever, when work is the thing you’re using to escape and numb, the weight is internal. You couldn’t pick out the workaholic in a police lineup.

But upon closer inspection, it’s clear that the heaviness is doing them in.

If you struggle with the heaviness of psychic weight, there’s fabulous tool you can try called miraging. It’s particularly helpful at the workplace for those whose are part of a team, although the basic principle can be applied in various situations.

Miraging is deliberately choosing not to do something to see if it simply goes away and nobody notices.

This technique may sound careless or irresponsible or cynical at first blush, and that’s a fair objection. But let’s consider the context.

First, why give all of yourself and feel drained when you’re not going to get anything back anyway? There are so many tasks, projects and activities in this world that give very little benefit relative to the time and energy we expend on them.

Part of our job is learning how to filter out the noise so we can focus on the work that matters most.

Secondly, and this part can be hard for our egos to accept, but unless we point them out, most people won’t notice most things. They’re simply not paying that much attention to us.

It doesn’t give us license to be incompetent or neglectful with our work, but it sure is amazing how much lighter we feel once you accept that most people aren’t watching. Once we let lay aside every weight that so easily entangles us, we’re free to run with abandon the race that is set before us.

Miraging can be a powerful tool for effecting small, concrete ways to make your life lighter.

It’s an experiment. You stop doing something to see if it simply goes away and nobody notices.

You might learn it wasn’t as urgent or vital as everyone initially thought, and now you know to avoid it in the future.

That’s enlightenment.

Why give all of yourself and feel drained when you’re not going to get anything back anyway?