Being Whelmed

You know, as opposed to overwhelmed.

Last week I learned a valuable piece of information, namely that my friend Amanda is taking an institute class during my most useless class of the day and if I'm in institute with her I don't have to go to it. I'm not even really sure how it happened, but I ended up registering for the institute class so now I have to navigate the impossible task of being in two places at once. Or I could just show up to Human Development on test days and hope I pass, which is probably what I'm going to do.

If anyone knows where I can get one of these, let me know

While in class the other day, (the class is Repentance and Forgiveness), my teacher taught us an interesting principle that has a lot of bearing, not only in my life, but I would say in nearly everyone's. The principle was something he called Being Whelmed. 

Some of us have the propensity to live our lives in a state of  never-ending stress and anxiety. The smallest things can weigh us down. I am definitely one of those people. At any given moment, I can think of at least ten different things I could be stressed about. At this moment, for example...

•  my house is a mess
•  the car is a bigger mess
• the fridge needs to be cleaned out because there's cookie dough and spaghetti noodles that are growing cute little mold colonies

Is that a ghost pepper?

• I need my landlord to send the contract for our apartment to the couple who's buying it so the girl who's buying it will leave me alone
• I have to memorize the names of each workout machine at my new job, as well as all the muscle groups each works

And I thought I'd successfully avoided taking an anatomy class.

• at some point we need to take our old Costa Vida shirts back to our old manager
• I need to go interview someone sometime and write a paper about it
• actually I need to interview two people for two different classes for two different projects
• I have to transform my current ability to run two and a half miles into the ability to run thirteen miles in the next year

An accurate representation of how I felt after running 2.5 miles the other day.

• I have to figure out how to pass my Human Development class without actually attending class
• not to mention my stress level doubles once it becomes jacket weather since I suddenly have twice as many pockets to lose things in

I could go on, as I'm sure you could too. But I learned the other day that Heavenly Father never intended for us to live in this stressful state. When we're constantly stressed, we're constantly focused on ourselves. It's harder to love others. It's hard to feel the simple joys of our everyday lives. It's hard to be kind, hard to smile. Hard to reach out and lift others up. It's hard to laugh and to sing. Hard to be in tune with the Spirit, hard to recognize the needs of another. Hard to see ourselves as children of God, worthy of every blessing he sees fit to bestow on us. It's hard to follow the example of our Savior, who was never too busy or stressed or focused on himself to love each and every person who needed him. 

One of the simple joys I discovered on a run a few weeks ago.
Who knew there were turtles only a few blocks from me???

Aristotle had a theory about something he called the Golden Mean. Essentially he believed that in order to be happy we have to cultivate virtue, and in order to be virtuous we have to live somewhere in the middle of two extremes. For example, courage lies between the extremes of cowardice and recklessness. In this case, our Golden Mean is somewhere between apathetic laziness and exhaustive overstress. The way to true happiness is to live in a state of whelmed.

 

It comes down to priorities, really. We become stressed when we attempt to make every responsibility the number one priority. What I am learning is that in order to become whelmed I may need to focus less on school and work so I can give more attention to my marriage and my testimony. That doesn't mean abandoning those responsibilities completely, rather to me it means giving the time and attention I can and then trusting that God will help me with the rest. And I know He will, because He has in the past. 

2 of my #1 priorities

Brad Wilcox has said on multiple occasions, Christ doesn't make up the difference. He makes all the difference. And I know that as I do my best to be whelmed rather than overwhelmed, He will take care of me. And He'll take care of you. Because we are His number one priority. 

He is never too busy to love us, and to lift us up.