This spring, should it ever arrive, is going to be insanely busy for my household. First off, both of my girls are in rec soccer, which will keep us running four nights per week, and they are both taking piano lessons with a big recital coming up next month. Additionally, our older daughter just started middle school track, and my younger daughter has started running club at her elementary school. Mix all that together with church obligations, family commitments and just, well, life and it’s enough to make any minivan-driving mom start to hyperventilate.
Now I am the first to admit that I have a hard time living in the moment. My world is in the future — the “what-ifs” and “I can’t wait until” and “might-happens” that potentially lurk over the horizon. I don’t know what we are doing this weekend (partly because of the freak April blizzard that’s threatening to arrive) but I can tell you all about the vacations we are taking for the next 14 months.
Keeping my brain in the future has helped to make me a pretty good planner, albeit somewhat of a procrastinator. But it also fills me with a sense of anxiety and worry that is completely unnecessary. In fact, studies have shown that the happiest people are those who practice mindfulness — the art of living and finding joy in the moment.
So instead of panicking about the upcoming scheduling nightmare that is to be my life, I’m working hard to take a more zen-like approach to spring sports madness:
- I can only be in one place at a time;
- The chaos will not last forever;
- No sports scholarships were ever won or lost in third or seventh grades;
- Prioritize the day’s most important commitments and go from there.
The second part of the equation is to stop periodically throughout the day and appreciate the moment for what it is. Admittedly, I often get so caught up in, “What’s next?” that I fail to savor the joy and beauty of the current moment. Even though I know the future is a gamble and there is no guarantee of tomorrow, finding contentment in the present and showing gratitude for God’s gifts in hand are concepts with which I struggle. (Deep breath here. Self-improvement is hard.)
Anxiety is no joke, and I’m far from a master at handling stressful situations. But incorporating more yoga, more mindfulness and more quiet moments of gratitude into my life can only work to improve my mental state. Starting with this moment … where I’m grateful that it’s Friday and we have nowhere to be as the freezing rain is falling. Happy … Spring?!