Accept things the way they are? Not gonna happen. It’s my job to fix it.

Allow my child to figure their way out of this mess? I love them too much to abandon them like that.

Let my spouse come to the answer (my answer) on their own time? You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t have that long.

Take some time for myself? No way. There’s too much to be done.

Does this sound familiar? It should, because this is how most of us, including myself, live our lives.

Over and over. Day after day. We are out there forging ahead, fixing what’s broken and fighting the good fight.

This, more than any other issue, is what I see and hear in the people I coach.

In the words of Brene Brown, they are “crazy busy!”

“How you doing?” You ask them. “You have no idea. I’m CRAZY BUSY. So much to do, so little time to do it.”

I get it. I’m an American. I know there’s no rest for the weary, no time to delay, no resting on our laurels (whatever that means).

This is how I was raised, what I was taught, and how I spent the better part of my life.

The problem is, it isn’t the the “better” part of our life; certainly hasn’t been the best parts of mine. In many ways it’s the worst part, and definitely the most exhausting, anxiety producing, and alienating part to be sure.

If it left us happier, healthier and “whole-er” I’d say – go for it. But it doesn’t. It leaves us empty.

CRAZY BUSY

“’Crazy-busy,” says Brene, “is a great armor, it’s a great way for numbing. What a lot of us do is that we stay so busy, and so out in front of our life, that the truth of how we’re feeling and what we really need can’t catch up with us.”

If you don’t want to numb your emotions. If you don’t want to medicate your feelings away. If you want to uncover your authentic self, return to your essence and live a soul centered life AND HEAL, then maybe it’s time to stop, think again, and heed the words of the great poet, Rumi:

 Try something different. Surrender.

• Surrender doesn’t mean give up.

• Surrender shouldn’t mean quitting the things that matter.

• Surrender isn’t about being lazy, copping out or taking the easy way out.

• Surrender is about taking a deep breath.

• Surrender is about making some time to sit and be present.

• Surrender is about centering yourself in your body.

• Surrender is about feeling, really feeling, your feelings.

• Surrender is about shifting our awareness away from what we want or how we think it should be, to what is.

You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to resolve yourself to it. You simply have to acknowledge that right here, right now, it is the way it is.