Why does everything always feel so urgent?
An encouragement to slow your pace from the inside (and maybe outside, too.)
There was a point in late July that I finally named what I was feeling. I stood in my kitchen and said it out loud to my husband.
“I don’t know why I always feel so rushed.”
Now, I know feeling rushed isn’t a new problem, and I’m not unique for feeling it. It’s pretty common to wear “busy” as a badge and truly need to rush from one place to another as a result of the pace we’ve made for ourselves.
But I’ve been trying to slow down my life for five years. And I’ve succeeded at that in a lot of ways. For one, I work for myself and determine my own schedule. We decided to homeschool, so I was in no real rush to get back to school things ready at the time when I said this to my husband a few weeks ago. And we were not signed up for really any extracurriculars at the time. We were living our best slow-summer life.
What I realized is that I may have made choices to slow down my actual pace - but that doesn’t change anything if I don’t change my inward pace.
Anxiety is common for me - racing thoughts. But that wasn’t even the problem. I just felt like I needed to keep going. Keep doing the next thing. Keep checking off another item on the to do list. Keep finding a better laundry system. Keep a consistent 5-workouts-a-week schedule. The list goes on.
And the result was feeling rushed, stressed, and struggling to be present.
As soon as I named this feeling, I decided to stop it in its tracks. Of course, it still pops up. But when it does, I give myself the simple reminder to stop it.
Nothing will happen if I don’t find a better laundry routine and implement it today. The world won’t stop spinning if I don’t check off every to do list item. I can just slow down. I can just be. And it’s actually a priority for me to do so. It is the way I want to live.
I wrote a little poem. Which seems funny to say. I used to write poetry (or something of the sort) more often years ago, and I haven’t in a while. But it just kind of kept bobbing around in my head til I wrote it down, and I figured I’d share it with you.
It’s certainly imperfect and a first draft and probably not one I’ll edit in any way, so you get the messy version, as that’s the only version that will exist.
Here it is.
There’s not enough time-
It’s an excuse I’ve given,
An excuse we’ve all given,
Time and time again.
But what if we paused and realized,
That while our time is limited in ways we can’t know,
We can change the way we think, the way we move within our days,
So that the time we do have is given to that which matters most.
I’ve overhauled my life in so many ways.
To make space, to make time.
Time to bake the extra batch,
And learn around the table.
Time to move slowly when I need to,
To play longer,
To work and create.
The urgency is fake.
We’ve made it up.
At least, the urgency to rush from here to there,
To climb a ladder,
To get it all done.
All at the expense of the things that fill us up.
So let’s just decide that there is enough time-
Time for the things that matter most,
At the expense of the things that matter less,
And not the other way around.
There is no perfect system
That will make it all run smoothly,
So you won’t forget a thing,
And your life will be organized-
The mess will be managed,
It will all be so perfect.
That may be the image we see when we scroll,
But that image does not exist in reality.
So let’s lean in to the life where there is mess,
Maybe even some chaos,
Some things that go forgotten.
Because that life will be rich.
It will give us back time.
And the things that matter
Won’t be the things forgotten.
Naming this feeling helped me so much. I hope this reaches you if you need it, friend. And I hope you’ll name what you’re feeling and move forward from there.
Now, on to podcast updates!
This week on Minimal-ish:
Last week I brought you a solo episode where we explored how the four pillars of minimal-ish living fit in with this back-to-school time of year. I love talking about these four pillars, and I hope it’s an encouragement to you as it is to me when I think through them!
This week will be a guest episode with Tidy Dad! I love our conversation so much. We talk about “Surthriving” and creating routines as layers and giving ourselves 6 full weeks to adjust to anything new. This conversation is a breath of fresh air and I hope you listen in! It’s coming on Thursday, so make sure you’re subscribed to Minimal-ish on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss it.
Other things:
Last week, I mentioned Simple Morning Lists in the episode as a way to start your day intentional. If you’ve never heard me talk about Simple Morning Lists, I just wanted to link it here for you because it’s something I still love and use 4 years later after creating it.
That’s all for this edition of the Making Room newsletter! I’m so glad you’re here!
Oh wait, ONE MORE THING!
Minimal-ish just celebrated 5 YEARS and 3 MILLION DOWNLOADS at the same time!! Crazy!
You are to blame, I mean THANK, for this craziness! Thank you so much for all the ways you support the show - like reading this newsletter, listening to episodes, and all the other little ways in between. I’m honestly so thankful you are here. Minimal-ish would not be Minimal-ish without YOU! If you keep listening, I’ll keep creating.
Seriously, thank you. <3
-Desirae
Your poem is beautiful, I love it so much!