All Micro Everything
(or The Magic of Thinking Small)
An annual Valentine's Day love note from Mixolo founder, Carolyn Walton Lynch
Let’s try this again: Happy New Year! I plan to embrace the Lunar New Year and all of the fun trappings of the Chinese horoscopes and creative gifting. It’s the year of the Ox, after all. It’s supposed to be lucky, a good year to cultivate relationships – safely, of course. I'm also cherishing real-life good fortune, no matter how small, and the incremental progress that I tend to ignore when confronted with big things.
I’m not suggesting that your year hasn’t been happy so far, but I’m pretty sure it’s been weird and downright scary at times unless you’re living in an alternate universe. Negative 2020 just walked all over Optimistic 2021 like, “I will not concede!”
Some of us are still mourning the loss of freedom, livelihoods, or, sadly, loved ones. I’ve experienced a couple of recent heartbreaking diagnoses and losses concerning loved ones in this time of COVID. The horrific attacks on Asian-Americans seem to be the latest symptom of the sickness of racism.
To get beyond 2020’s reluctance to just go away peacefully and be history already, I’ve been experimenting with NOT measuring time or progress by years - or months. I’m all about the micro-moments. We’ve got big problems in our society, no doubt. Stepping back from the macro-view into our span of control and doing the little things, sometimes hard things, can lead to monumental change.
Turning big things into bite-sized pieces is not only more manageable emotionally, I feel physically better when I’m fully present in the moment, even when that present is actively sucking. I’m more focused and I perform better at tasks, problem-solving, and caregiving.
Granted, the bar for "better" is low right now, but I’m giving myself high marks for every micro-achievement and less energy to macro perceptions when I'm faced with challenges. I believe that those who can maintain the presence of mind in the inevitable joyous and painful moments in life may have a distinct emotional advantage. If less [internalized trauma] is more, I want more of what they’re having!
This renewed moment-to-moment approach has rekindled my excitement for holidays and just about any observance. In the last year, I’d almost forgotten that celebrating is my jam. I'm learning about truly hidden figures in Black History (also known as American history, but we still need a designated month until it becomes integrated into the fabric of our collective story).
We interrupt this blog with a Black history micro-moment...