By AMY FREESE
DesignHer Living columnist
My house is clean as a whistle, my children’s closets and drawers are up-to-date with fall ready styles and sizes, and my social calendar has been chock full of coffee klatches. 

Oh, isn’t it just awesome to take a break from reality and stroll around Fantasy Island once in a while? Well, I don’t know about you but this back-to-school year has not included any of the above Martha Stewart moments for me. Let’s get real; sometimes the dust bunnies and the closets full of snug and short sizes need to just hang out a while longer until Queen B has time to come a sweeping and a sorting. Sometimes there are other fish that need frying.

Yep, sometimes us Queen B’s need to close the closet door in order to turn our attention to other promising priorities that are hanging in our view. New priorities can come in all shapes and sizes from a house move, job change, health issues, or new passion-filled pursuits. This is no time to freak and feel less than. Instead, it’s time to cut yourself a little slack and refocus on what you can accomplish and not on what you can’t.

But what if your priorities haven’t changed and your closet tends to always be in a state of disarray with hangers displaying colors of overwhelm and defeat before you even make your first pile of Goodwill goodies? If that’s the case with you then Mama needs a new pair of shoes.  It’s time to get walking in a new direction with a new attitude and no later than now.

Doggone it; doesn’t it always come back to our attitudes? The mental state of "overwhelm" that has taken up residence in many of our convenience and techno savvy lives is only an attitude adjustment waiting to  happen and a new perspective party needing to be planned. And that “I’m so busy” friend of ours needs to be left off the guest list. We’ve all fallen prey to allowing these little mind meddlers move in and mess with our mojo. And it’s time to tell them to take a hike!

We are typically "overwhelmed" and "so busy" if we choose to convince ourselves that we are.  And the more we hear ourselves humming that off-key song, we had better switch the station fast and start singing a new tune quick even if we can’t find the beat. It always comes down to "we are what we think" and don’t you think it’s time to change that stinkin’ thinkin’?

We can’t throw in the towel and let the piles in our lives get so high that we don’t even attempt to make the climb.  C’mon, we are made for more than this.  Let’s forge past our paralysis of analysis and get busy, refocus, conquer, and be empowered. 

The promised land could’ve been experienced in four days but instead the destination was delayed by 36 due to grumbling, complaining, and being in a state of . . . overwhelm. I’m thinking all of us could use a trip to the Promised Land sooner than later.

So when those piles show up in our presence, and they will, let’s not succumb to old ways of thinking  but instead let's set our thoughts on what is true (I can and will start and complete fill in the blank without stress or stressing out others), on what is noble (I am worthy and have been created for calm not chaos), whatever is right (I will choose right over wrong even when the former is harder), whatever is pure (I will turn the channel or throw out the mag that seem to just steal my time and my peace), whatever is lovely (I will surround myself in loveliness even when the news makes me feel trapped in Hell), whatever is admirable (I will take the less-crowded high road.)

So no more traveling the busy and overwhelmed streets that make us want to call 911. Instead, it’s time to slowly pull over and take a minute on the shoulder to find our way back to where the crowds, speed bumps, and hazardous conditions are few; the road less traveled of "calm and can do."

  dream•discover•design

 Amy Freese is a professional life coach, motivational speaker and Brentwood mom. Contact her at amy@freeser.net or visit her website at www.amyfreese.com.