On Being Whelmed...

Have you ever been whelmed? I am right now. Probably because I didn’t take that day off I usually do to regroup after a vacation. My house is a mess, laundry needs to be done, I need groceries, I FINALLY got on antibiotics yesterday for this bronchitis, bills need to be paid, mail is piled high on the counter. And that’s just home – I won’t even delve into work where, over and above my usual job, I am covering for one of my dear friends while she spends a much-needed week in paradise!

I try to settle into whelmed and not let it bother me much. I know that when I’m whelmed, I’m also tired. When I’m tired I eat too much. It’s my body’s way of trying to let me know it’s helping – by giving me calories to keep me awake. It’s not much help. It doesn’t really work. So, instead of having whelm progress, I’d rather embrace it, identify its’ effects in order to deal with them and keep plodding on. I try to focus on "the next thing" and not further. That's really the secret to not letting whelm progress - just do the next thing. 

Whelmed is an okay place. It feels a little uneasy, but it’s not like overwhelmed where I spontaneously burst into tears or stomp out of rooms or slam doors. I don’t like that place. So, my plan for getting out of whelmed and not progressing to over-whelmed is to take my medicine – including some adult cough medicine – and go to bed before 8:30. Everything will still be waiting for me tomorrow…and the next day…until the week-end when the majority of it will finally get done.

I will choose one thing to get done tomorrow. Maybe I will get it done. Maybe I won’t. Either way I will feel better about my state of being because I slept for 10 hours. After two weeks of averaging 3 hours/night – 10 hours sounds fantastic! I should be a new person tomorrow…see you then…

Our girl when we let whelmed progress...

2005