Throughout your life you’re going to have days that make your world feel simply insurmountable. Well at least most of us will. Whether by our own choices or by the randomness of the world, we each come face to face with challenges that will make us ask “where do I even start?”  That can be a lonely and overwhelming feeling and I have only figured out one way out of it.

I awoke this morning at 4:11 a.m.  This would be great if I were getting up to go workout or plan or something, but instead, at the first stirring, my brain was flooded with something I have to figure out today. Small business ownership is great, but can be filled with enormous amounts of stress. I ended yesterday with a list of things that need to be taken care of, and by 4:13 they were all calling. 

I rolled over and knew immediately I wouldn’t be seeing sleep until tonight so I got up and started coffee and slowly started the day. 

I know I’ve said before that one solution to stress is to figure out the next first step, but that may even be oversimplification. What if you’re so stressed you can barely wrap your head around “the things that need the steps?”  What then?  

This next pseudo Dr. Phil moment is brought to you by delightful whipass coffee and the two snoring dogs in my den. The answers to conquering the insurmountable starts with this easy two step process. 

Close your eyes and breathe. 

Get you a couple good slow deep breaths. Let go for even a second. Repeat as necessary. 

The insurmountable lives on you feeding it. With each breath, know that you can create a moment of calm. Nothing we have to do is too urgent for this. 

Try and get to some level of acceptance that you have a hard task at hand, but that with a little space, all of the things get a little less intimidating and then perhaps you can work towards that next first step. 

What I know for sure, is that if you never stop to calm it. The insurmountable will continue to feed. 

Eyes closed. 

Breathe. 

#hugsandhi5s