This post goes back a few years now.  I have pinned it so readers can come back and read it as many times as necessary during these troubling times:

Below is an excerpt from a book that Emily, my 17 year old daughter, picked up titled: The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie:

Letting Go of Fear

Picture yourself swimming — floating — peacefully down a gentle stream.  All you need to do is breathe, relax and go with the flow.

Suddenly you become conscious of your situation. Frightened, overwhelmed with “what if’s?” your body tenses. You begin to thrash around, frantically looking for something to grab on to.

You panic so hard you start to go under. Then you remember — you’re working too hard at this. You don’t need to panic. All you need to do is breathe, relax, and go with the flow.  You won’t drown.

Panic is our greatest enemy.

We don’t need to become desperate. If overwhelming problems appear in our life, we need to stop struggling.  We can tread water for a bit, until our equilibrium returns.  Then we can go back to floating peacefully down the gentle stream.  It is our stream. It is a safe stream. Our course has been charted. All is well.

Today, I will relax, breathe, and go with the flow.

I am having the above printed and will be mounting it on the wall by my desk – in direct line of site  — just above and behind my monitor.

I have long called the craziness of modern day digital life not a battle to gain balance, but to control the flow. I  am also constantly reminding myself, clients and colleagues to breathe. We all get so caught up in the flow, we forget we have tools to help.  There is my D-A-F-T™ and other tools available to help office professionals better control the flow of work and thereby improve on life.

Mostly, however, we forget that we are absolutely in control of how much we allow the digital to invade our lives. All. The. Time.  You can turn it all off (and not miss out on a thing).

In fact, rather than missing out on some digital tidbit of some far away “friend” on Facebook, perhaps you’ll seize that moment to sit with your daughter and ask: “Hey!  What cha reading?” … and, in that ever so beautiful voice, be rewarded with the quote above.

Pick a day and turn off the digital. You (and those around you) deserve it. The flow will still be here when you’re ready to dive on back in <-I’ll even save the Swan float for ya!  Oh. Unless it’s a Sunday – then you can save it for me (I’ll be back Monday morning).