I find myself keeping an eye on the time frequently in the last few weeks. On those busy days, the time seems to disappear so quickly. I wake up early, I do so many things and then before I know it, it is time for bed, and I am exhausted.

There have also been those times when I had absolutely nothing to do. I woke up late, I was bored most of the day, I took a long nap, then stayed up late. This went on and on. I felt as if I had no purpose. I was unfulfilled. I didn’t take care of my body, or my mind, or my soul.

When I have crazy busy days and I am so exhausted, I sometimes yearn for the days of not having anything to do. But then I really think about it, and I realize that I really don’t long for those days. I wasn’t happy back then. I had a purpose; I just didn’t want to put much effort forth into figuring out what it was.

Now that I have so many things that fill up my day, I have a sense of urgency most of the time. I was thinking about this today and I wanted to share something that I learned in therapy a long time ago.

I was going to therapy because I had debilitating anxiety. My therapist was great and instead of talking about my feelings, he taught me about anxiety as if I was going to school. Everyone has anxiety. It is part of our physical make-up. There is an anxiety scale. This is how it was described to me:

Similar to the pain scale, this scale goes from 0-10. 0-3 is where there is little or no anxiety and people have no urgency to get anything done. He called this the Rest and Digest part of the scale. They are happy to relax and veg.

4-7 is where anxiety keeps them in a productive state. This is where there is enough anxiety to accomplish a task with a sense of urgency that makes people productive. But it does not cause panic attacks and it is a comfortable place to be.

8-10 is way too much anxiety and instead of helping the person, it hinders them from being able to function. It can be debilitating. They cannot function. You can experience panic attacks that can feel as if you are having a heart attack or asthma attack. It is not fun, trust me.

I have spent time in each of these zones. The worst by far for me is the 8-10 range. I hope to never live there again. So, while I am living in the 4-7 range, which keeps me productive, it is still hard sometimes to not feel like I’m always rushing to something.

A while back, I wrote a post about discomfort. Being uncomfortable is our body’s way of telling us something. Anxiety has a purpose as well. Sometimes it doesn’t work correctly. It can be in a place where we aren’t feeling any urgency to act, and it can be in a place where the sense of urgency is debilitating.

I decided with my doctor to use a low dose of anxiety medication to help get my anxiety to a manageable place. I also learned coping skills to help me when I was overwhelmed with my anxiety. Together, these helped me to go from a state of not being able to function to a state of going and doing many things every day regardless of how anxious I am.

Now I am going to talk about a different sense of urgency that I have been experiencing in the last several years. It is an urgency of spirit. I have felt urgency throughout my life to serve others, to notice and meet my husband, to become a foster parent, to meet and get to know others, to start this blog, etc. Those have all come from a sense of urgency from the Spirit. It told me that I needed to act on something. Very soon. It gave me a sense of urgency.

Sometimes I listened. That is the most rewarding feeling to know that I was inspired to act, I acted, and it was important to do so. I would get a confirmation of how important it was that I acted.

There were sometimes that I didn’t listen. Especially in that time of not feeling that I had a purpose and that the days were so long and boring. I had lots of opportunities to act on inspiration. But I let them all pass by. Someone else ended up acting on that inspiration instead. I wish I had acted but I understand that God knows all things and He gives me grace for those times. I’m so thankful for that grace.

Let’s pretend instead of an anxiety scale, it is an ability to hear and answer the gentle urges of the spirit scale. Where do you fall on this scale?

Can you hear the spirit when it whispers to you? Are you too involved in the distractions of the world? Do you hear it and choose to ignore it?

Don’t follow my example. Make time to put away the distractions of the world. I promise you that if you pray and fill your spiritual cup in some way each day, the Spirit will be heard by you. When you feel inspired to do something that you wouldn’t normally do, it is the Spirit talking to you. Pray to know and then act. You will feel that amazing confirmation and know that it was indeed the Spirit of God asking you to serve and love one of His children.

This is one of my most favorite feelings. I am encompassed about in a physical feeling of love. It is from our Heavenly Parents. They are so joyful when I act on their prompting. I am too. I wish for you to experience this.