Busy

Busy is a familiar word. It is both rewarded and scorned equally, depending on the accusers experience with it.

I know for me, I can do busy well. It is easy to be busy. It is easy to keep going. It is easy to push where many would stop. It makes me feel productive and satisfied and empowered, most of the time. But not all of the time.

When I’m not feeling productive, satisfied, or empowered, I find myself using busy to avoid. To avoid feeling, to avoid looking at, to avoid being with myself as I am right now. Busy isn’t always bad, but when I fill my schedule and my life to the point of numbness and an inability to just sit still, I start to notice.

I start to notice how difficult it is to eat without doing anything else. I start to notice how difficult it is to listen to someone’s long-windedness and not move to another screen and tune out. I start to notice how difficult it is to just breathe and walk along the path and be with Bam. I start to notice how hard it is to just drive and focus on the road. I start to notice how anxious I am and uncomfortable I get when I’m not doing something.

Busyness is often camouflaged. Society finds novelty in doing more, creating more often, and pushing harder. Society rewards hard bodies and late nights. Society cheers for constant service and public spotlights. It works both ways. I can be still and aware, while I can also show up and be of service and balance.

Common themes: balance, time management, rest, quiet, presence of mind. I have a feeling you will read more of this, and my hope is that you relate and call to action some different practices for yourself. I also hope that if you do things that work for you, that you will open up a bit and share them with us here! I’d love to connect with my readers and hear what is working, not just what isn’t. The tendency is to write about and talk about the poorer choices we make and the lesser qualities we focus. Balance the two: we can have both things we love about ourselves, and things we need to work on a bit.

One thing at a time.