The beauty is always found in the remembering, the remembering that all of the answers, inspirations, creativity, and connectivity, come not when I am striving, thinking, agitated, afraid, overwhelmed, but when I am fully present to the beauty all around me and within me. As I undergo the transition of my business evolving into being more of “me,” (upgrading my website, changing my business name into a name that is me and all that goes along with doing that), I spent a couple of days feeling overwhelmed, the overwhelm springing forth from the underlying fear that I couldn't do what I was trying to do, and that there was not enough time for me to do it. Now, it's so easy to simply stay in that state of overwhelm, feeling like if we slow down at all to get to the root of the chaos that we might never get to where we are going... And that's exactly what I did for two days, stayed feeling overwhelmed, not present when my daughters were awake, wishing them down for their naps and sleep at night so that I could get to the overwhelming amount of work I thought I had... That at one point, I woke up, and I thought, is this how I want to move through my life? I am going to be busy for a long, and I have responsibilities (bills & kids), and is this how I want to experience being “busy?”
That's when I realized the fears that were driving my sense of overwhelm were that I couldn't quite possibly do everything I needed to do, and that there was simply not enough time in each day to do it... And so, those two self-imposed limiting thoughts were the first to go, once I slowed down enough to realize what was happening, to become aware of the thoughts driving my running-around-like-a-chicken-with-her-head cut-off behavior. I simply decided upon that awareness that that was not how I wanted to navigate through this very busy, but very exciting time in my life. I had to let go of the perfectionist desire to go to bed every night having everything “all done.” That would probably not be my life for a long time, or forever really, maybe not until I was about ready to transition into the next life... And that all of “this,” this work, this time with my baby girls, has to be fun, it has to be enjoyable, or else, what is the point, really? I needed to reframe what was happening in my life, it is not stressful, overwhelming, it is full, it is exciting, and as B-school founder, Marie Forleo would say, it was all “figure-outable.” It was time to let go of all of this; “there's not enough time, I can't do it” nonsense and expand right out of that shell that was no longer fitting. And remember again and again, that all of the answers I seek are always found when I am just presently enjoying my life in each moment (so I keep a notebook around so I can jot down inspired ideas), like when I am cooking for myself and my daughters, sweeping the floors, doing the laundry, playing barbies with my daughter, nursing my baby, tidying up the house... Quite simply when I am seeing the sacred in all of it, every little bit of it. So, when you feel like you're running around in circles, STOP, just stop, breathe in the beauty all around you, breathe, and lovingly engage with the people around you, with your home, with nature, and remember that life is beautiful and to be enjoyed.