I have been struggling these past few weeks.

I wake up many mornings with this low-level sadness and anxiousness that requires me to use every tactic I have to get level:  Prayer, journaling, walking, doing something  productive, talking with my husband, listening to uplifting music and podcasts.

Perhaps these feelings are part of my mourning. Of weddings postponed, graduation ceremonies cancelled, vacations delayed, fun times with family and friends done virtually.

And don’t get me started on my to-do list.  Just when I seem to be getting ahead it expands to fill the void.

Today it included writing this blog, planning, shopping for and making meals for the week, closing up our garden including picking the last of the carrots, a review of our updated website for typos and areas of improvement,  recruiting for 2 jobs for a client, creating a go-forward marketing plan with my team to get the word out about Take Charge Digital Job Search Course.

Also, the launch of our private  “IT” Community for Women in Tech, paying the business bills and doing payroll, figuring out what to do to celebrate my son and my father-in-law’s birthdays in a safe yet fun way…

It all feels like too much. 

Then I read Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper (https://mariashriver.com/sundaypaper/).

She talked about a term she learned in therapy called “flooding”. She used it in the context of a being in a difficult conversation with someone and you reach that point where you just aren’t hearing what the person is saying anymore.

Like a ground over-saturated with water, nothing is soaking in.

That is exactly how I have been feeling. Between the self-imposed to-do list, a workload that seems to be increasing, the external challenges of the pandemic, politics and our climate, I feel flooded – unable to take in or take on one more thing.

So today I am taking Marie’s advice and taking a break.

I am looking at the to-do list and seeing what I can make a to-don’t.

I’m going to sit still and allow my feelings to rise up and be given the air time they deserve.

And for all you out there reading this – if you are feeling flooded with your added workload at home and on the job – I urge you do  the same.

This is a time of small moves and doing less.
This is a time of reducing the noise and moving into stillness.
This is a time reconnecting to the rhythms of nature.

This is a time of doing only that which is required and nothing more.

A Netflix Documentary that will flood you with peace and love