 I have a confession to make. I get OVERWHELMED. Gasp. And I don’t hide it well. Ask my poor husband. But I think I’m in pretty good company, we have all been there. Whether we care to admit it or not. We are a stressed out, no time for ourselves, totally overwhelmed society. As human beings, we try to be as efficient as possible. We try to get too much done in a short amount of time. We take on as many projects as we can. We may work multiple jobs, be taking a number of different classes, running a household, toting children back and forth to school and to sporting events. Doing laundry and dishes, chasing after a peeing puppy. How about picking up groceries with two happy toddlers? Trying to get everyone out the door on time. Or maybe painting our fingernails when there might be five minutes to let them dry before someone wants something that requires your hands. Or going to the bathroom by yourself. No way. That’s not going to happen. And there you have it. OVERWHELMED. The sudden ringing in your ears is not music, it’s your blood pressure. The flushed feeling in your neck and face is not romance, it’s stress. The sudden sweat in your underarms is not the afterglow of a good workout. It’s just a run of the mill morning. We always make sure everyone around us is taken care of. Even if that means not getting our own checklist done. And before we know it, we are cranky, itchy, eating waaaay too much ice-cream and wishing we could just reset! And we can.  I know it seems impossible and this may seem old school, however….the only thing we have control over is ourselves and our reaction to our current situation. I will admit it. It’s not easy. Our instinctual response is to control and fix EVERYTHING. But sometimes we have to STOP. Stop. Think. Options. Proceed Stop. This is probably the hardest part of the whole deal. It takes effort to NOT yell. To NOT spiral downward into a stressed out mess of a crazy person. Make that effort. Don’t do it. Just stop. Think. Okay so we didn’t lose it. Now what? Think about the impact you have on those around you. On yourself. On the rest of your day. With that in mind reassess your reaction to the situation. And the effect that reaction will have. Options. What are your options? Well, we can stress out, our ears can ring, our vision can get blurry, figuratively and literally. But we’ve been there. And there sucks. So….how about we stay calm-ish? Let’s approach the situation with a little maturity and try to remember that this too will pass! And if we control our emotions then we don’t have to take the situation and it’s results with us all day long. Proceed. And now we are in a place where we can choose that calmer option and move forward with a practical reaction. When we can accept the fact that we only have control over ourselves and our reactions then we are well on our way to sweating a little less, only raising our voices in a life or death situation and maybe seeing the humor in these sometime over-the-top times in our lives. So, the next time (three minutes from now?) you are faced with a gathering in the bathroom, everyone crying and refusing to eat dinner or the weekly hunt, gather and yell at the grocery store remember to STOP. You may not have a ton of time to yourself, but I promise you that if you can run through those steps in your head you will create a new type of time. Time that is less overwhelming and therefore more successful. Be Strong. You’ve got this. 
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