Feeling overwhelmed with life? 2 ideas to stop chasing “caught up”

 

Feeling overwhelmed with life? 2 ideas to stop chasing “caught up”

Every year holds about 525,600 minutes.  A day has 1,440.  Into those minutes, we fit life’s demands that really are part of the urgent.   What about the rest of our time? What are we doing with those extra minutes?

A recent study estimates that only 34 are spent as a family vs. about 90 minutes + on a cell phone or social media. Yikes. Add in the rest of life commitments, and dang…doesn’t that just make you feel a bit weary before the day is even done?

One thing I am changing though (and I hope you’ll join me) is to stop trying to always be caught up.

 

What causes our feelings of being overwhelmed?

Are you one of those who really, really tries to create a clean slate? I am. In a perfect world, there’d be no calls to return, a cleared out inbox and every text responded to and erased in a timely manner.

My desk would always be tidy, projects would be completed ahead of the due dates, all personal relationships would be nurtured,  artistic creations would be available for sale, and the closets would be organized with cute labels (ok, I do try to do this now, ha!).

The problem is, if we spend our precious moments constantly trying to catch up, we miss the momentum of moving forward! We become overwhelmed with life.

Chasing the illusion of completely “caught up” on life can cause us to miss the acceptance of being comfortable where we are.

Peace is not likely found in the anxiety of “behind”.   Calm doesn’t go hand in hand with constant reflection on what should have happened.

 

 

The truth is, we ALL are trying to get caught up somewhere. It makes sense then, that the LEAST productive thing we can do is to waste all our mental energy on time already passed.

Consider some ideas that allow us to make real progression without guilt. Now, I do recognize these might feel, well, wrong. Not allowable.

Says who???

Mom guilt, wife guilt, daughter guilt, employee guilt, friend guilt, volunteer guilt... please, please don’t let guilt be the driving force behind chasing something that will never be attainable.

We don’t need to have it all together and perfectly complete all the time. I know, I spent YEARS trying really hard to do just that. Here are two much better ideas…

 

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed with life?

1. Don’t go backward. When we dropped the ball, it isn’t helpful to dwell on the things we had imagined would be done. LIst out the things to be accomplished, pull out the calendar and just try again. The world has never ended when I’ve done this, regardless of that nagging guilt that tries to bully us into cheating ourselves of margin. Whew, there is some freedom!
2. Pick up where you are, not where you ought to be. Have you ever taken an ungraded online course, attended a Bible study, or joined a book club? We THINK there’ll be tons of time to be caught up, all the time. Yeah, about that… it never allows us the grace of dealing with the unexpected.

For example, if you got sick and fell two weeks behind on a Bible study group? The hard thing would be to try and cram it all in, at the expense of everything else to get, you guessed it, caught up.

Instead, pick up where you are that week.

Accept that some information will be missed out on, but enjoy the information you will absorb! It really is ok to not read every page, complete every checkbox! That is freedom to live imperfectly in neon lights!

(If you’d like to read more ideas on margin, check out Margin Making Mom’s site!)

 

Stop feeling guilty when overwhelmed

Small choices add up to big impact.

I don’t have this mastered either, but the more I practice these ideas, honestly, the better my life becomes.

 Guilt is replaced with genuine enjoyment. Obligation gives way to more frequent feelings of choice. Freedom becomes the better choice, the one that gives instead of taking. 

 

 

Pick one area and give it a try. Don’t feel the need to revamp ALL the ways of thinking at once.  Choose something that feels like a weight today.

Imagine how it would feel to just let that go, and move towards that.

There will always be competition for our time, people and events that will tell us our moments are simply necessary. Again I ask, says who?

Proverbs 16:9  In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps

Psalm 90:12  Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom

Consider praying and asking God to clarify the “whats” that are part of His plan for you, specifically.

Your turn- what is the one thing you will tackle today by putting down your expectations of being “caught up”?

 

Resources when you are overwhelmed:

• The Art of Rest: Faith To Hit Pause In A World That Never Stops
• Peace with the Psalms: 40 Readings to Relax Your Mind and Calm Your Heart
• Find Peace: A 40-day Devotional Journey For Moms
• The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You (ps, I am an HSP, are you?)
• Not Just A Mom: The Extraordinary Worth of Motherhood & Homemaking 
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