“Do one thing at a time, and while doing it put your whole soul into it to the exclusion of all else.” ~Swami Vivekananda

Dear Universe,

Lately, things have been busier than normal.

I don’t mind.  I like being busy, feeling productive, working towards goals and checking items off my to-do list.

But it’s been the kind of busy that has me feeling scattered at times.  I start one task and just as swiftly, move onto another.  Before I can finish either, I remember this other really important thing I need to do, so I move onto that and forget to get back to the rest.

Like I said, scattered.  And frustrating.

It’s not the multi-tasking that bothers me so much.  Multi-tasking I can handle just fine.  It’s about my mind and my energies feeling off-centered.

During these last several weeks of my busier than normal routine, one mantra keeps coming to me at the precise moment I need to hear it most.

One thing at a time.

So simple and something I learned as a toddler, yet somehow these five words will come to me and immediately re-center my attention.

One thing at a time.

In that instant, it helps.  I’ll often stop what I’m doing—juggling—and decide to focus on finishing one thing. Shockingly (sarcasm!), this helps tremendously.

While I appreciate this mantra, I am still bothered by the fact that day after day I fall into this same trap.

Finally, yesterday, I think you, Universe, were fed up with my complete disregard to the messages you were sending me.

As I sat at my desk with two computers on, my planner open, my phone out, a half-eaten lunch waiting for me… a bottle of seltzer water exploded… on everything, including me.

I quickly jumped to action, drying off electronics, putting things aside, and praying nothing was ruined besides my now frizzy hair.

My planner—with that great long list of to-do’s was smudged and looked more like a watercolor painting.

My computer, well, it was not working.  I prayed for it to only be on a short hiatus—that maybe my laptop was also tired of my ten documents open, twenty web pages waiting, and different emails dinging.

I sat in this wet mess a little stunned.  I knew I could toss it up to Mercury Retrograde—it’s a doozy, after all—but I think I’ve figured out the real culprit.

In the midst of this busy, scattered need to-do, to-do, to-do, I’ve figured out it’s what I’m not doing which is causing me to feel so much angst and unrest.

I am neglecting my every day, make-me-zen-practices for the sake of time.

Huge no-no.

I know this.  I know that I have to make time for myself so everything else can come together more easily, but I have a habit—like so many of us do—of pushing aside these practices when other things are going on.

Usually a few days will pass, and I’m back on my zen-bandwagon.

But I think that this has become one of the longer stretches of me being un-present and it’s showing up in other ways—ways I don’t like.

One thing at a time.  (Tweet that!)

I am hearing this mantra as I write this and I am grateful for the reminder that I have to make time for the things that matter most to me, my soul, my spirit.

I think we all do.  So if you are reading this and the feeling is also resonating with you, I hope you’ll promise to re-center, re-focus and realign with the things that make you feel whole.

That’s what I did this morning and am vowing to continue doing.  (And I’m happy to say my laptop is back on board with this plan!)

I know that in committing to my daily rituals, things will feel a lot easier, and a lot more peaceful.  More importantly, I know I’ll feel happier, lighter and more like myself.

I can already feel the difference.

Much Gratitude,

A