Have you ever paused in traffic, or on a busy sidewalk, or even in a huge line-up in the mall at Christmas and wondered, “What the heck are we all doing?” All bustling from place to place, everything so urgent, so important that we lack the courtesy to even be kind to one another anymore.

Being in the health and wellness field I’m in the wonderful position of being a listening ear, a trusted ally, a confidant.  And in the 10 years that I have been that person professionally for others, there have been a few common threads – one in particular that I feel connects more than have admitted.

We’re too busy.  We are trying to do too much, too fast, too often.  We have too many balls in the air – it doesn’t even resemble juggling anymore – it’s more like dodging the balls that are being fired at us faster than we can think or react.  How are we supposed to do all of this and be the very best and have the cleanest house and smartest kids and be fit and eat well and get that promotion and be that considerate partner to our spouse…walk the dog two times a day, keep up with laundry mountain, bake allergen free cupcakes for the kid’s fundraisers, keep up with social media, answer all those texts….oh and have time to compare ourselves to everyone else we see online who seems to have it all together and have great hair?

Even as I type this my mind keeps flitting to my to-do list, wondering if I actually even have time to be writing this right now.  But I need to.  So many of my lovely clients and dear friends have been coming to me lately, telling me of their feelings of being overwhelmed, of feeling lost, feeling inadequate, getting panic attacks in the middle of nowhere.  Anxiety and depression are real but many of us don’t even have time to acknowledge that is what is going on or know where to start in getting better.

I wish we could all just stop.  And breathe.  And look around us and see there are really very few things that TRULY matter.  Hold those things and people close to you and press pause on everything else.

There’s been a big movement to go through all of our physical possesions and purge what does not bring us joy.  Well, maybe we should purge our lives of the things that steal our time and attention, our health and our joy – the things that don’t matter, that won’t mean anything in 5 minutes let alone 5 years.  Let those things go.  And breathe.