We are all busier these days.

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Life seems to be moving so quickly.

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It can feel like it is hard to catch our breath.

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Yet busyness is not the problem.

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Busyness is merely the symptom.

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A symptom of something deeper.

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Because we often do not take the time to ask why we are so busy?

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We basically take it for granted.

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Everyone else seems so busy, why shouldn't we be busy too?

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Which totally misses the point. Actually two.

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The first point being that we are the ones who have the control over how busy we are or aren't.

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Our busyness comes from our choices.

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There might be some external factors that influence our time and how much we feel we have to do.

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Yet ultimately we are the ones who make the decision each and every day as to whether we will engage in the activities at all.

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We may not like the consequences, but there are always other choices.

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The second point is to look a the underlying reasons why we choose to do so much in our lives.

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Why would we choose to be so active and so busy all of the time?

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Would it not make more sense for us to give ourselves more time to relax?

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To enjoy life?

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Of course it would.

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So why don't we?

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The simple answer is that we are afraid to just sit and be with ourselves.

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That we are actually terrified to not be doing something all the time.

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Because if we are not doing anything we have to just be with ourselves and feel what we have been avoiding feeling.

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There in lies the true answer.

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To just sit and do nothing is much harder than we imagine.

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For us to turn off all the distractions, not look at our screens, and just sit down and breathe can be more challenging than any of us suspect.

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We have been going, going, going for so long, that we have gotten used to not giving ourselves a break.

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A break to just stop and feel for a change.

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Perhaps there is some anxiety, depression, worry, fear, guilt, shame, or any one of a hundred other emotions that we are af1raid to feel.

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If we take the time to stop and start to feel what is going on inside of us, the floodgates might open and the feelings could become overwhelming.

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So how can we stop?

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With such a fear driving us, how can we take a moment to just be?

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The real question to ask is how can we not?

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For those unfelt emotions are still there waiting for us.

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Building up day after day.

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Our busyness does not make them go away.

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It only delays the inevitable.

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Yet if we can just stop, even for a minute, and start to feel a little bit, then we have made progress.

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A little at a time we can learn to be comfortable feeling again.

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Even those uncomfortable feelings.

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We do not have to do it all at once.

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But if we want to be less busy in our lives then we have to get used to taking a moment to feel what it feels like to just be.

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Looking for distractions when we feel uncomfortable is normal.

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It is okay to not want to feel something right away.

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The trick is to be conscious and aware of that decision and not let it rule our lives.

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Learning to be comfortable to just sit and feel is a great way to be less busy.

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So how are you using busyness to distract yourself from feeling?

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Can you give yourself some space to just sit and feel?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour