When You Get Overwhelmed With Anything or Everything, This Is All You Need To Do

Step 1: Force yourself to move. Get out of bed, off the couch, out of the house, drive somewhere, step away.

Step 2: Stop thinking about your list. Stop looking at the big picture. Stop thinking about what needs to happen after the next thing that happens.

Step 3: Just. Do. One. Thing. It doesn’t have to be the biggest or hardest thing, though I find that if I can muster the strength to do the ONE thing I least want to do, and to give myself permission to not do anything else the rest of the day after that, I will go ahead and just keep doing things anyway because that one thing is finally done, and I feel like I’ve actually slain a giant.
– But sometimes we really don’t have it in us to slay the giant, and so it’s ok to keep it locked away a bit longer AS LONG AS you do something else. Anything else.
– The point is to put yourself in a state of motion, and the longer you’ve been immobilized by your overwhelming list of obligations and/or creative constipation, the harder it is to get moving. You might need a jackhammer to chip yourself out of concrete your indecision and apathy and anxiety and overwhelm have cemented you in as it all creeps further and further up your body. So if all you have space and energy for is the tiniest thing on your to-do list, just DO THAT.

This is my one thing. The onset of postpartum anxiety, plus the start of Lexapro, which my body needed a couple weeks to reacclimate to, plus travel, plus announcing a major life change, plus so many exciting opportunities because of that, plus strep throat, plus a sinus infection, plus finally taking the damn antibiotics because fuck it I need to get on with life after feeling sick for nearly a month in some way or another, plus trying to get this house ready to sell- that’s the quickly hardening cement puddle I’m chipping my way out of.

My list has SO many things on it that are more important than this blog post and this picture, which has nothing to really do with this blog post, but processing it felt like therapy to me, and it’s beautiful. I’ve spent all weekend hating myself for not being able to tackle THE LIST. And so I’ve mostly done nothing but sit and hate myself. But then I remembered that I know the way out of this because I’ve been here so many times, though it’s never instinctual- this way out. I need to actually write this post for myself as an instruction manual.

Just one thing. A blog post tonight, email tomorrow, rescheduling calls, re-connecting with people later this week. Nope, I’m just going to think about this ONE thing. And it’s done. And I already feel so much better. Goodnight. And remember, if you are stuck, just do one thing tomorrow.

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50 Things to Do Before You Deliver: The First Time Moms Pregnancy Guide
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