“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” – Socrates

“I am so busy” is a default response for many of us these days. It’s like a reflex to any questions we might receive from others.

“How are you?”  “Oh, I’m so busy!”

“Let’s go for a nice walk in the park?” “Can’t, too busy!”

Busy being busy

This would seem to be a modern day obsession and being busy is now a norm. No time to rest; little time for friends and family; no time to think; let’s just be busy: busy and harried at times doing lots of things that are actually of little or no real significance.

Seems too harsh?

Well, is spending two hours a day on your smartphone checking Facebook updates one of your daily activities?

When watching your kids during soccer or dance practice, are you really watching them, or more on social media scrolling through what’s new on your feed?

The implications of busyness on your health

The implications of all this busyness are significant.

Busyness can lead to:

• – More stress;
• – Less happiness;
• – Not getting anything really worthwhile done at all;
• – Feeling like we are chasing our tails;
• – Confusing the nonsense with the important;
• – Less time for family and friends;
• – Less time to spend on our passion projects and hobbies.

It shouldn’t be this way. Life is to be lived, not to be spent in a constant state of busy!

Some answers

To combat and defeat busyness we need to change our approach. We need to:

• – Get comfortable saying NO more than YES;
• – Identify what things are really important to each of us and make these things a priority;
• – Every day, make some time to think, to do some self-inventory, to relax and just BE.