Kate's Blog on Health & Spirituality

Everyone seems to be busy, busy, busy these days. Ask someone how they are and the response is usually, “I am so busy, I don’t have time for anything but work.” What are we all busy doing? What about our lives makes us feel we need to be busy all the time?
As I was getting my nails done recently I asked my manicurist the simple question. “Do you feel like your life is too busy?”
I was curious because I had just finished reading an article, “Getting out of the ‘busy-ness trap’,” by Martha Ross of the San Jose Mercury News. She was writing about a well-known author, sociologist and happiness expert, Christine Carter. Evidently her life, too, was packed at one time with “a long list of high-profiled commitments” along with all the duties of being a single mom.
According to the article, “she was miserable and had fallen into what she calls the ‘busy-ness trap.” Eventually she found herself in the emergency room, “exhausted, dehydrated and suffering from a fever and a kidney infection.” She had to cancel a keynote address she was scheduled to give at the end of that week.
In order to stay healthy and happy she knew she had to reorganize and re-prioritize her days and her life. This experience and the research she did on the issue of “busyness” led her to write a book, “The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work.” According to the article, she explains how to organize and prioritize your time, stay healthy and take time for fun.
Back to the manicurist scenario: To my surprise, not only did she respond but so did the neighboring women, two additional manicurists and their clients.
“Yes,” they all said, and each one launched into her individual scenarios as to why she was so busy. One by one they described how much they have to do and how they go from one activity to another without actually finishing anything. Then at the end of the day, they wonder where the day went and why they still have so much to do!
I could identify with them as I had, at one point, found myself doing the same thing. Also, I spent a lot of time during the night vowing that I would do better the next day. But, it rarely ever happened.
As it turns out both Carter and I solved our problems taking quite similar steps. We chose to prioritize life activities and then we said “no” to anything that doesn’t fit into those top priorities.
We chose as a top priority to maintain our health and happiness. And, to do this, we both put at the top of our list starting our day with quiet time. She calls it meditation and I call it prayer – communing with God - first thing in the morning and letting him “establish our day.” A friend of mine once said to me when I was hurrying from one thing to another: “God is never in a hurry. So, you don’t need to be either.” I could immediately see her point. I couldn’t imagine God rushing to get creation going. He created everything knowing and seeing that it was all good. (Gen 1:31)
I found that quiet prayer first thing in the morning set the tone for the entire day. It seems to me it is exactly what Jesus did – “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.” (Matt. 5:1)
Seeing all the people that needed help, he went up into a mountain, that is, he lifted his thought in prayer before he tackled the day’s problems.
When faced with many things to accomplish and tempted to fall into the “busyness trap,” I have learned to rely on a statement from a book on prayer and spiritual healing: “Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” The Christian healer who wrote that, Mary Baker Eddy, proved in her own life the power of living a God-first life. I realized I couldn’t suffer for things that needed to be done – and that God wouldn’t give me more to do than I could handle.
I absolutely love this statement! It frees me from being “too busy.” It reminds me to finish an activity and then calmly go on to another.
After researching and writing this blog, I can’t wait to share what I have found with my manicurist friends.
Don’t think this is only a woman’s problem. I know men that feel as though their work is never finished. This is for them too. But that can be another blog.
#busy-nesstrap #morning prayer #toobusy #overworked #priortize #organize

Kate is interested in blogging about the impact of prayer and spirituality on our health from her experience as a Christian Science practitioner. She is the media, legislative and public contact for Christian Science in the state of Maryland. Contact Kate on Twitter: @CscomMaryland, on Facebook: Kate Johnson CS, or email: maryland@compub.org.