Jada stopped Juggling Elephants

While waiting in the doctor's office with my dad this week I was perusing through the collection of magazines on the table. It's amazing where you can find stories and examples of people who literally have been juggling elephants and made the conscious decision to stop. Today's nugget comes courtesy of the June 2009 Oprah Magazine (Hey! It's a doctor's office-you didn't expect March 2010 did you?).

Jada Pinkett Smith is an actress, producer, writer and mother. She is also the wife of the actor Will Smith. In the article she writes, One day I was so overwhelmed I thought I might be crushed under the weight of all the responsibilities I'd taken on. Her solution came to her in a moment of meditation-The less I do, the better things will go.

She then offered two bits of advice on how she stopped juggling elephants (my words-not hers). They were:

• Being present. Whether at work or with your family, do what it takes to really BE in the moment.
• Trust that the people around her could do their jobs. A powerful insight in the article was When I was trying to control the people around me, they felt suffocated and invalidated. When I let go, they felt empowered, which created an atmosphere of harmony and there was peace within the everyday chaos.

In the closing of the article she writes, Since then [since she stopped juggling elephants], it's been a year of bliss. I don't have to go around trying to save everybody anymore. That's not my job. I took off the control freak crown, and now my headaches are over. To me, that sounds like a pretty good reason to stop juggling elephants.