Ok, so this is a totally personal post, but I felt like it could relate to some other ladies out there! Recently, I did a bible study with a small group of great and wonderful women, the study was called Breathe. In a nutshell, it was about the bondage we have to busyness. How we busy our lives, rushing from one thing to the next and we never take the time to just BREATHE. How we need to try having some quiet, peaceful, reflecting time. Time to refocus and find the right path for us. Priscilla Shirer, the author, made one example of her obsession with belts. She demonstrated with a huge belt loop, holding what looked to be 100 belts, all shoved together and unorganized, some even with tags still on them. She said that she was obsessed with belts, they were her favorite thing. She pointed out that she could never find one that she was looking for because there were so many. She couldn't enjoy what she had because she had overloaded her closet with them. So instead of them being something that she loved, they quickly had turned into something that was more of a problem/ hindrance for her. Every time she needed one she didn't even want to fight the battle.
And boy oh boy did this speak to me because this was literally an analogy for so many aspects of my life...
First and most obvious, my whole closet was the same as that belt loop of hers... jammed packed- I had so many items filling my closet: shoes, purses, wallets, scarves, pants, jeans, shirts, make-up, jewelry, fingernail polish, and literally anything else you can think of, that I wasn't enjoying anything that I had bought! And to top it off, I had done the same thing to my kids closets! I bought those items thinking they would make me happy or make my life better in some way for having them... but digging through our closets everyday to find an outfit was making my life worse and causing me so much more stress. I could never find ANYTHING. Definitely not what I had in mind when I bought the items! So to fix this - I cleaned out each of our closets! And honestly, I don't even miss a single thing that I got rid of! ....... Breathing a little easier each day!!
Secondly when I have a passion for something, I go hard for it! For example photography- I am obsessed with my job! I was always on the look out for the next thing, a new edit, a new shooting location, a new filter, a easier way to do something, a new way to find clients, how to get more clients, a new special we can run, I have felt like I was spinning and spinning in circles and not really getting anywhere. It was exhausting! Instead this year it has been my goal to just BREATHE and take the time to really hone in the skills I already have, and just be ME in my photography! I love that saying "Be yourself, everyone else is taken" because it's so true, no one else is ever going to look through the back of my camera and 'see' the same thing the way I do! I have to have more confidence in that!
Third, my family life, I was filling everyday with them with a list of to dos. Whether it was grocery shopping, to after school activities, it seemed like there was no free time to enjoy our family as a whole! We were just running from place to place. We have since tried to slow it down and geez I have seen such a difference in our lives! I feel like a have gotten the chance to look at my kids and husband and really SEE them. The beautiful creatures they are! I may be more in love with them now than ever before.
Reflecting back over the past couple months, I know that this BREATHING exercise has been working! It really is a relief when you are not worrying yourself with the clutter of what is next and just realize how amazing your life is. I am seeing how beyond blessed I am, from my family, my friends, my job, and my God! Things have just seemed to find their way to me and I don't feel like I am missing anything because I am not searching!! It has been a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. So I guess my point is to try to take inventory of your life figure out what is important and allow some breathing room for it! 🙂 
-Lisa