Often, as my fingers fly across my keyboard, writing another article for the Glutenfreeda Beauty and Fitness column, I discover that the article has already pretty much taken form long before I opened my lap top.  That is certainly true for this month.  I sat down to write about one subject, and an entirely different subject emerged. Guess I’ll go with the pre-formed concept, since it seems to be on my mind so persistently.

The subject is, calm. If you have calm in your life on a regular basis, then skip to our archives were you can explore another aspect of fitness and beauty! For those of us who repeatedly move too fast, here’s a reminder.  Calm is the essence of inner beauty.  Calm is the platform for good relationships and healthful living. We all know that we need more of it, but so many of us struggle to find our balance. 

I recently (once again!) caught myself feeling irritable and over-programmed and suddenly unable to just ignore it, or put a quick-fix on it. The first things to go when life gets too busy are the very tools we need in order to cope most effectively. Adequate sleep, workouts, quiet moments of mental and spiritual refreshment, healthy food, and positive interaction with others are missing in action as the to-do list grows. I realized that the work ethic which guided me through my life up to this point and served me so well through other chapters of my life needed a major renovation.

I once read that humans were originally only meant to remember five things at once.  That certainly worked better in the caveman and cavewoman days where the basics of life controlled everything else. Today, most people I know would laugh to think of only juggling five things at any given time. The method I’m using to carve a calm space for myself may help you find a chink in your ironclad to-do list.

Oprah has surely already covered this subject.  But I was out, working through my list, so I missed it. Maybe you were too?  My own solution has been surprisingly simple.  Make the to-do list.  Prioritize it.  Then cut in half the amount of things I think I absolutely have to achieve on any given day. Dole those leftovers out through the rest of the week.  Over-programmers not only plan too many things to achieve, we often underestimate the time required to complete those tasks. Allow a little extra time to give yourself a buffer.

I’ve also taken a portion of each day where I don’t allow anyone but me to plan that time. No appointments, commitments, just-this-once events.  That time has become my special refuge.  It gives me good humor and energy for the things that aren’t planned or must be done, or life in general. The rewards are little pieces of calm, every day.

If you’re a habitual over-programmer and life is too full to imagine securing a regular, calm space within your day, then start with one single thing. Grab on to that one thing and make it a habit. A calm state-of-mind can be available to all of us if we start small.

-Pam Brooks

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