What is a life less frantic anyway?

peaceMeans

So life has gotten a bit busy again recently. This is not really a problem for me because well, I like to be busy. I’ve never been one of those people that can sit still for very long and generally speaking, I always need to be doing something. For example, I don’t really watch tv (except when the Dockers are playing – go Freo!) because to me, that is not doing something.

So am I practicing what I preach? Am I really living a life less frantic? Well I reckon the answer is yes.

I firmly believe that a busy life can be a life less frantic too

The difference between frantic and not frantic comes down to stress. A life of stress is not a life less frantic. Stress is insidious and unhealthy and for me it’s a trigger for anxiety and a gateway for depression. Everyone is different but for me stress comes about when:

  1. I don’t feel I have enough time to do all the things I want to do properly (ie I have over-committed myself)
  2. I feel like I am not delivering on promises – whether it be to clients or friends or family members (ie I have over-committed myself)

I know I am stressed out when:

  1. I get all vague and can’t give my full attention to anything because my brain is going at 100 miles an hour trying to keep track of all the things I need to do
  2. I lose the capacity to deal with all the little stuff that that life throws up on a frequent basis
  3. When I DO have to deal with these little contingencies I totally lose my shit!

So right now I’ve got quite a bit going on:

  1. I am doing a lot of work behind the scenes at Swish
  2. I am doing a bit of design work for a few select clients
  3. Ant (husband) and I just launched a new venture and it’s going really well
  4. I am trying to make The Smile Collective profitable
  5. I am an iVillage Australia iVoice
  6. I am one of the ‘top bloggers’ over at Women in Focus and am blogging once a week there
  7. I am the Contributing Editor for an exciting new website for women my age (35 and going up, thanks for asking ;) that’s being launched next week
  8. I am writing a book
  9. I am a mum, wife, business owner, boss, sister, daughter and friend

But you know what? It’s all under control and everything above energises and excites me. I am not stressed about any of it because deep down I know I can walk away from most of the things in the list above if it all gets too much and the world won’t stop turning.

I am calm in my heart and content in my life. And that my friends is what a life less frantic is all about