Personal,  Wellness

The Chaotic Life

Life is chaotic.  It is unavoidable.  Even if you tried to keep every moment of life planned and scheduled, chaos is going to happen.  It is part of what makes life great and fun.  It can also be overwhelming at times.

As a mom to two very busy kids, chaos is an unmistakeable part of my life.  When I was in grad school, my anxiety reached crippling levels.  There was so much to juggle in such a short time period, I felt like I could never meet all of the demands placed on me and if I did, I felt like I could never do a good enough job.  I experienced more severe panic attacks than I had ever experienced before.  Feelings of panic and inadequacy overwhelmed me.

Since then, I have made great strides in managing those anxiety issues that were once so overwhelming.  In gaining better perspective, I have realized that for me the most helpful way to frame that anxiety is as a result of struggles dealing with the necessary chaos of life.  The unpredictable.  The imperfect.  The constant demands that can never be fully or perfectly met.  If I try to erase this aspect of chaos in my life, my anxiety is only going to increase.  To clarify, this doesn’t mean not being organized.  I have found that better organization is extremely helpful to me for managing anxiety.  Rather, learning not to try to control everything and to embrace life’s imperfections.

With this realization in mind, I am focusing on changing my mindset and learning to thrive in the chaos that life throws at me, rather than fight against it.  Through this blog, I plan to share therapeutic tips and strategies that work well for me, home organization ideas and projects, and other tools that I find helpful along the way.  Anything that I share on here, is something that I have personal experience with and find helpful, so hopefully it will be helpful for my readers as well.  I am excited about this journey ahead of me, and I hope that you will join me!