Are you a juggler?  I am.  And I’m pretty sure that most of you are too.  Normally I’m perfectly capable of juggling numerous things in the air at any one time.  In fact I’d go so far as to suggest that I’m actually quite talented at it.  There’s a fine balance though.  Sometimes just adding one more ball into the mix at the wrong time can throw everything out of sync.  I’ll end up moving my hands faster and faster to try and keep up with all the balls, and my eyes start trying to look in many different directions all at the same time so I don’t lose sight of any of them.  For me, this is when juggling stops being fun and challenging, and becomes stressful, overwhelming and exhausting.

Recently, I’ve been steadily moving closer and closer towards that point – feeling like I’m desperately treading water and trying to keep my head above the surface, while a really strong current is trying to pull me under.  Too many things going on, and too much noise in my head.  Then a colleague introduced me to this simple technique.  I tried it out, and it really helped.  A lot.  So I incorporated it into a client session.  My client loved it as much as I did.  So I thought I’d share it with you, just in case anyone else out there is feeling a bit overwhelmed too:

1.  Get a piece of paper, and draw some circles – as many circles as there are things worrying you.

2.  In each circle write what it is that’s stressing you out – eg: work, relationship, money, time, children, health, family etc…

3.  Imagine that these circles are balls.  Some are made of glass, and some are made of rubber.  Glass balls will break if they are dropped.  Rubber balls will bounce.  Now ask yourself, “amongst all these balls I’m juggling, which ones can I leave to bounce safely for a while (rubber), and which ones are too important to drop (glass)?”.

You’ll probably find that there are fewer glass balls than rubber ones.  That’s a good thing – these are the important ones.  I guess you could call them priorities.  I’ve found that by working out what my priorities are, there has been a dramatic shift in my thinking.  I’m only concentrating on the glass balls now – it’s almost like I’ve taken the pressure off of myself and have given myself permission to stop thinking about all the other stuff for a while.  I feel so much more relaxed, my head is quieter, and I’m actually getting stuff sorted out.  Hooray!

Well, for now at least.  Because life is never that simple is it?  Life changes all the time, and new balls get thrown into the mix, while other ones get taken out of the jugglers hands by events beyond your control.  The great thing about this technique is that you can do it as often as you like.  Re-evaluating your priorities in any given moment is like checking in with yourself from time to time to ask whether you’re ok with everything that is going on in your life at the moment.  If you’re not ok, let some balls bounce for a while.  You can always pick them up again.

I’d love to know how you all get on with this technique, and how much of a difference it makes for you – please feel free to leave a comment below.

Happy juggling!