Too Busy to Breathe? — Understanding how to navigate a hectic life

It’s rare these days that the average working class individual takes time to reflect. Reflect upon their day, upon their blessings, upon their successes and their failures. Heck, I’m definitely guilty as charged. I mean, why should I reflect really, how will it benefit me? Let’s figure it out.

My average day consists of waking up at 6:30 AM, going to work, immediately taking the bus to school afterwards, attending class and finishing assignments/papers for 5 courses up until 10:00 PM and by the time I’m home it’s 11:30 PM and time for bed cause I have to be up for 6:30 AM the next morning. Along the way I participate in a non-profit social entrepreneurship organization, an investment fund, and a finance case competition team. As a business student it is important for me to maintain some sort of social life, network with professionals to enhance my professional development capabilities, and be a volunteer in the community every now and then. As you can imagine I have a lot of things going through my mind everyday, and very often I feel overwhelmed by all of it. I know for a fact that I don’t have it nearly as bad as many others, however everyone’s busy schedules are relative to their lives and capacities.

For many months now I’ve realized that I want a getaway. Some sort of avenue to get away from all my problems, challenges, and responsibilities in order to...honestly speaking…breathe. I know many of you reading this are nodding your head and thinking, “I know exactly what he’s talking about.” For those that don’t understand, you either are already in the right state of mind or you’ll find out what I’m talking about soon enough.

So you want to get away but you can’t afford to travel right now, your responsibilities are beckoning for your attention, and now you feel like you’re stuck in limbo.

So what do you do know? Are you stuck in an endless cycle of suffocation where you have deadlines to meet, tasks to finish, and responsibilities to attend to? Well yes, that is possible but it doesn’t need to be nearly as challenging. All you have to do is inhale, and exhale. Breathe in your deadlines, tasks, and responsibilities, then breathe out as if they were never there.

You see that getaway that we’re so desperately searching for doesn’t need to be to an exotic island, a fancy beach, or a captivating resort. It can just be me, myself, and I. The power of the mind is intense, and you already know that because you manage, organize, and balance so many things in that brain of yours already. You need to know how to fuel that brain, how to stretch and relax it, and ultimately how to keep it healthy because the last thing you need is for you to burn out and not be able to follow through on any of your goals, dreams, or passions.

I am a hard believer in the fact that each and every one of us has an inner energy contained within us that we can harness and use in order to fulfill our spiritual well being. Now I don’t expect you to believe in this, but I do hope that you understand the idea of potential and how bringing out your potential is an internal process as much as it is an external one.

Below I have outlined 3 key items in order to unleash that potential and better manage your very, very busy lives.

#1: BREATHE

I cannot emphasize this point enough. Obviously you kind of need to breathe in order to keep the blood flowing, the heart pumping, and so you don’t die because we don’t want that to happen. Honestly though, don’t take this point lightly. At this point you don’t even need to be reflecting about any one particular thing, you could be thinking about flying unicorns or raging paperwork, it doesn’t really matter. Actively inhaling and exhaling will give you a chance to vent out all of your problems without having to go on a verbal rant about them.

The concept of active breathing is very in sync with active meditation and reflection, or particularly; Zen Buddhism. Of course with our busy lives, not everyone has the chance to sit cross-legged and meditate for extended periods of time. We do have time however, on our way to work, in the office chair, sitting in class, or during final exams. Whenever you have that feeling of being overwhelmed, try it, and be amazed. Take about 3 seconds to inhale, and slowly exhale all that built up exhaustion, responsibility, and fear. You are your greatest hero and greatest enemy. The enemy in you might win the battle, but the hero will surely win the war.

#2:

You can call me cheesy but there’s a part in the movie “The Notebook”, where Ryan Gosling is all up in Rachel Mcadams face like “WHAT, DO YOU WANT?” and she’s all like, “IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE”, and he’s all like “WHAT, DO YOU WANT?” When it comes to what you want in life, you have got to make it simple. As you grow, you are finding out your strengths and weakness, your likes and dislikes, the people who matter and the people who don’t. This idea of knowing what you want is important, and it is important that you evaluate your goals everyday whether it be socially, professionally, physically, etc. You might learn things tomorrow that you don’t know today, and so what you want in life is always susceptible to change.

So take a moment each day, whether it be while you’re actively breathing , going to bed, or taking a walk, to think about what you want in life and then what you need to do to get there. Find out what matters to you. Sometimes sacrifice is necessary such as quitting your job, or going out to dinner less. It’s even better if you can get these thoughts on paper. Now sometimes getting there might mean you have to get even more busy and take on more responsibilities but that doesn’t need to be a bad thing. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard” so it’s up to you to motivate yourself towards your goals. There is no goal too tough or too easy to achieve, ultimately it’s about how you approach it and what your state of mind is. In my daily life I try to stay away from the word stress as much as possible and I find that that helps me cope better with all the pressure in my life.

#3: Count your blessings, every last one of them

I know that Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, but really being thankful is something you should be doing every single day. You don’t need to be thanking a religious figure if that’s not your cup of tea. You should just find out what you’re thankful for so you can appreciate it. I’m thankful that I’m alive for one. That I live in Canada where people are very accepting and helpful individuals. That I can read, write, jump, and run. That I have a wonderful group of friends and I go to a school that I actually like going to (sometimes).

It’s so important to count all these blessings so that when the negative things in our lives come our way to bring us down, we have the positive things in mind already in order to combat the resistance. It’s about appreciation and really being in tune with your life and your surroundings. This way you won’t always feel as overwhelmed as you do, and you might actually feel relieved because you realize you don’t have it as bad as you thought you did.

That’s pretty much it from me, these are some of the things that help me get through my day to day life. I hope they work for you to.

Until next time,

Keep it Zen