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Meandering-Mind-Monday? Find focus in a fresh start!

As I peruse an ever-growing list of elusive deliverables and bothersome to-do's for today, my empathetic heart swells for all my friends out there who will hit the snooze button at least twice, opting for a pony-tail and 2-minute face to delay hopping into the shower, then the daily hamster wheel, just a little longer. Do you ever feel like this? (the little critter in the wheel)
Sometimes it seems like we are just tumbling from one task to the next, almost mindlessly, so caught up in the urgency to get things done that we forget to weigh the value of what we are doing.

When I say, "meandering-mind-Monday," I'm talking about the weekly recurring panic that sets in as I see the days dwindling away until an upcoming event, with so much left to do that I start to feel that roller-coaster adrenaline start to surge---you know that feeling you used to get the night before a final exam, when reality hits--you don't know half of this stuff, there is no time to learn it, and the day of reckoning is at hand. GULP. Your mind races from one thing you haven't done to the next, and then you find yourself going to the kitchen and forgetting what you went to get...

It's easy to get overwhelmed, and forget the difference between urgency and importance. If you're the little hamster flopping around in the wheel, I can assure you that you won't find enough presence of mind in there to get your bearings and sort out your priorities. 

Before your day spins out of control, your mind jumping from task to task to task, until your head is spinning, too, hit the breaks for a moment. Ask yourself, is there anything at all I can take off my list today? When you know you are going have a ridiculously harrowing day, don't make it any harder on yourself than you have to. I'm not talking about cutting corners or slacking. I'm talking about being sensible. Skip the high heels in favor of comfy flats.  Reschedule the nail appointment if it makes you too pressed for time. Pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow, when it's more convenient...and no one will take away your Mother of the Year plaque if you opt for soup and sandwiches for dinner. 

A great deal of the time, we create our own stress -- the good news is, in that case, we can eliminate some of it. Give yourself permission to loosen up your schedule so that you have a little room to breathe. Most importantly, make sure you take your own quiet time before you start to tackle that to-do list. Fuel up on devotion time, play some calming music, put on a dab of your best perfume and brightest lipstick, and, instead of hiding from Monday, face it--too fearless and fabulous for failure.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you...let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." -- the words of Jesus,  John 14:27

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