I am just trying to breathe.
Here it is; I made it to the end of 2024. This has not been a challenging year but an adjusting year. I don’t have anyone to cut off because I don’t keep folks around me who may be a snake. 2024 has been a period of growth and change.
I had my son in May 2023 and lived in a bubble for six months. I call it a bubble because although I purchased my home and was “adjusting” to becoming a mom, the actual adjustment didn’t come until I returned to work and started volunteering heavily in church. That is when life became interesting, to say the least. Balancing a baby, working, churching, and still wanting to be a thriving woman in society was a task in a task. I had to take a step back and adjust.
Oxford states that adjusting is to alter or move (something) slightly to achieve the desired fit. I was seriously just trying to breathe. I began to resist my son because I would not have needed to adjust if I had done these things before him. I would have gotten it done and moved on.
Has life changed where you need to adjust? Are you just trying to breathe because you have said yes to many things? These things are doable; however, you may now be wondering if you really want to do them still. Here are some tips that can help you adjust your situation in 2025:
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Rest:
You can not move forward if you don’t rest. Rest is essential to function. If you are tired, you can not look at things with a clear scope. If you are anything like me, you will say forget it. Then, it will never get done.
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Write everything down:
Write down everything you need to get done or want to do. Reviewing everything helps with its rationalization. It won’t seem so overwhelming, and you can remove that oxygen mask.
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Prioritize and Organize:
Once everything is written out, you can prioritize what needs to be completed and in what time period. This will help you organize everything in priority order. For example, I knew I could do many things from home regarding church. I didn’t say yes to things that required me to be outside of my house. One of my yeses was to lead our Connections team for Life Groups at my church campus. I know that we meet on Monday evening. So Mondays are now my Life Group days. I don’t work on Life Group things outside that day unless it is urgent. I was able to breathe even more after this.
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Honor yourself:
Honoring yourself is honoring your no and your need just to be. Be whatever it is that you need to be in that moment. So many times, we are just moving and moving and moving. We don’t stop to think of ourselves, but you can’t pour from an empty cup. If you do, you will start to feel depleted and have to rest anyway because your body will shut down. As you prioritize and organize, add yourself to the list. What day will you take for yourself?
I have done these things to breathe a lot easier. Adjusting doesn’t feel comfortable. We have to cut something that we want to do to make room for things that take more priority. This does not mean we can’t go back for them; it just means they don’t fit right now. In 2025, let’s adjust so we can stick with it and breathe.
