What is your relationship to Being Busy?
Is it something you strive for?
Feel proud of? Feel like you can’t escape?
Wish for?
Our world has become so dynamic and quick-paced that it seems everyone is always Busy all the time.
Correction, it seems like “successful” people are always Busy all the time.
Where are you going with all of your Busy? What’s your end game?
What’s really important to you? Is it your career, relationships, spirituality, family, money, fame, winning that debate on social media (yeah, I see you), your health?
Let’s set aside for a moment that most people haven’t even defined what “successful” looks like in their life. Truly “successful” people invest time in things that are most important to them. They’re smart and intentional about their Busy.
However, what typically happens is we get lost in the dis-ease of Busy, we lose track of what we’re spending our time on. Almost like a snowball effect, one thing leads to another and another and before you know it, you’re just always busy, and probably tired and stressed. It’s no longer about being productive or moving toward something, rather about scrambling to keep up. Subsequently, we often lose track of what is actually important to us.
What’s important to me isn’t so much doing, it’s more about being and feeling. I strive to feel calm, grounded, loved, to be prosperous, energized, and aligned. To ensure that my focus remains on my state of being, I set an annual Intention each year and allow that Intention to become my north star as I prioritize my life and keep an eye on my relationship with Busy.
Sounds nice right? A north star to feeling and being whatever you choose.
Here’s where the Catch22 comes into play.
I spend a lot of time crafting my intention each year. I take myself on a mini solo retreat where I spend time alone with myself, tapping in and generating this intention.
When I guide others through the process it is a 6-8 week journey with a minimum 3 hour weekly time investment.
If you’re smack in the middle of the dis-ease of Busy, taking that much time for yourself sounds bananas, unrealistic, or just plain stressful.
Here’s the thing, the chronic dis-ease of Busy will eventually take its toll on you.
It can ravage your body and your relationships. At some point, if you don’t slow down and reprioritize, the Universe (aka God, Spirit, Goddess, the Divine, Allah, Karma, Yahweh, whatever your jam is) will do it for you. I’ve seen it happen in the form of job burnout leading to firing or a layoff, relationships fizzling leading to the end of a romance. For me it was health-related, my body started to shut down, literally.
Some people need that smack in the face from Universe to slow down. Some do not. If you’re already feeling that tug, that call to re-evaluate, to slow down, and prioritize. Listen!
How do you manage your relationship with Busy?
To give you access to some immediate relief to this dis-ease of Busy I have for you one simple step you can take.
Set aside 3 minutes each day (thats only 180 seconds) to breathe.
It’s that simple.
Set an alarm on your phone and every day take 3 minutes to drop everything else and just focus on taking deep, even breaths. You don’t need any fancy apps, you don’t have to do any special kind of breathing or try to incorporate any other goals. Just breathe for 3 minutes.
After a few weeks of doing this consistently, you will notice a teeny-tiny shift in your relationship with Busy.
When you feel ready you can take it to the next level. Every time you switch tasks, pause and breathe for 1 full minute. Same activity, only now you’re doing it for less time, but more often.
What this could look like is this. Arrive at work, before you get out of your car, breathe. Get your coffee, turn on your computer, catch up on emails, before your first meeting, breathe. After the meeting, breathe. Before you eat lunch, breathe. When you get back from lunch, before you dive back into work, breathe.
Maybe you’re like me and don’t have a 9-5 job. I wake up and I breathe. I get myself ready, and as I make my breakfast I breathe. Then my kid and I breathe together before a bit of play time. Next, I straighten the house, but first I breathe.
Using breath as a transition between tasks is a simple way to slow the pace of your day down. To give your mind a break, to give your body more oxygen and to give your soul a chance to be heard. It’s also signaling to your body that, in this moment, you are safe and your nervous system can rest.
If you try this on, I would VERY much like to hear how it goes for you, email me and let me know!
When you’re ready to really tackle the dis-ease of Busy, I’ve created a class that will teach you 6 tools you can use to become more aware of where you have choices and BE more present in your life. Each tool comes with an exercise to help you apply it in your real, day-to-day life, immediately. It’s self-paced and contains about 90 minutes of content, all broken into 10-minute or less mini-workshops. Click here to learn more.
Sometimes it’s all about the small changes over time.
You’ve got this.
