I was speaking with someone and she expressed that she was overwhelmed at work. She felt like she couldn't handle the amount of work she had to do and was in a constant state of stress.
As we were speaking, she kept using the word "busy" and so I asked her what that word means for her. This made for a really great reflection and discussion on how often we "thing-ify" and make things real. To her, she had innocently made "busy" into this really big thing and that was the state of mind she was operating from all day long. When we are thinking about how busy we are, we are going to feel overwhelmed and anxious because that is how we are designed -- to feel our thinking.
Her experience wasn't coming from her job or her to-do list because if that was the case, everyone that had her to-do list or was in her same role would be feeling overwhelmed too. Her experience was coming from thought in the moment, creating her experience of reality. When she saw that she could let those unwanted thoughts pass (because it simply didn't feel good or make sense to create those feelings), her wellbeing was present.
We treat our thinking as if it means certain things about us, about our jobs and about life -- as something that is fixed. But as we look at it more, we see that actually, it is a temporary experience made of energy.
We think our days are going to be busy and effortful and since we believe that, we then experience it in that way. But, we certainly can do just as much in our day without thinking about how busy we are! And then we are free to show up, with life, to the task at hand, then to the next task and the next. Allowing what is to be what is, with more mental energy to actually do the work, instead of thinking about the work.