I just recently returned from vacation, which was great while I was there. After I returned though, I have had a revelation about the human brain (or mine at least!) Before going on vacation, my life was full of stress, with LOTS of different categories of issues, many areas of responsibilities. The great thing about vacation is that you get to put some of those responsibilities on hold, and reduce the number of things you need to concern yourself with.
Now, think of a computer system. (Ok, I am not a huge techie, so this is not going to be all the correct terminology) If you are like me, when you are surfing the internet, or working on projects, whether it is for pleasure, work or a combination of the two, you have multiple windows open. Many times, I might have 20 or more windows open, and the more that you have open, typically the slower the computer runs. If you are downloading something on youtube everything else almost comes to a stop. And… if you keep pushing the issue, you know what happens, if freezes up. It says “I can’t handle everything you are asking of me” and requires a reboot. After a reboot, typically you are fine, as long as you don’t go right back to the same scenario. And usually we won’t. We’ll limit our pages open, so as not to overload and be required to do a reboot again. I mean, having to do a reboot is SO inefficient! You lose the time while you are waiting for your computer to restart. Ahh, but eventually, we get cocky, we get carried away and before you know it, there are 20 pages open again, and everything is dragging and then… freezes. Many of us will continue to do this to our computers over and over.
For those who need a little computer lesson, the hard drive is where your files are stored, but your memory (RAM) is where the programs and the things you are currently working on are operating. Your computer is limited by the amount of RAM you have installed. Cool thing is, though, you can buy more memory and upgrade. Eventually that may be required so we can handle more tasks at a time.
Well, the human brain is a lot like a computer. Before vacation, I had WAYYY too many things in the forefront of my mind. I had my job, which is a lot of stress and responsibility (I typically work 80+ hours a week) I had my teenage and young adult kids (one who’s GF is expecting my 7th grandchild in September), I had the dog, I had the house, I had the mentally challenged adult family member that I am working to get guardianship of, I had the pressure of needing to exercise, to eat right, of wanting to blog, and wanting to create my latest entrepreneurial venture, I had the husband I wanted to please and make happy, in lots of different ways. I had the people who I support in my job (700+), who are great, but look to me for guidance and support. I had the bills that needed paying, I had the church ministry I feel called to work with and develop. Needless to say, I had TOO many windows open at one time! I felt like my mind had slowed to a crawl, and on the verge of freezing up. I don’t think I want to experience the brain locking down and needing a reboot, lol!
Have you ever experienced this in your life, being on overload? How did you deal with it? Be sure to look for my follow-up post to see what I did to start solving the situation!
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Oh yes my brain is on overload! I went on vacation from June 19th until the 26st. A whole week at the Jersey shore with all of our kids their spouses and our 11 grand kids + my husbands entire family of 100+. It was a chaotic and marvelous week!
The Monday we got back my stepson was in a motorcycle accident and is still in ICU in critical condition; my grandson had a 50 pound pole go through his leg and come out on the other side (he is 8 and doing better but in pain) and now my son-in-law is in the hospital with an intestinal blockage!
I am behind on my blogging and my writing (editors are not patient people) and my dogs have peed on all of my shoes..
Does this qualify as overload..more like ready to explode!!
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doreenmcgettigan.blogspot.com
I feel your pain Bernice and I can’t wait to read how you solved it. I’ve subscribed to your blog. I found you on Redhead Riter’s Woo Us blog post. Hope you can stop by my blog for a visit.
Hugs,
Carol
I had a year or so in total overload. I owned a business that was failing, my younger brother was living with us and dealing with drug issues, my youngest son was having problems with school… it was beyond stressful! Then one day the IRS came to see me at my office to tell me that our accountant hadn’t been paying our taxes and I had a week to come up with over $10k!
I went into complete and total melt down! I was so stressed that I stayed at work til after 10pm trying to figure out how to fix this disaster and I didn’t even tell my husband until the next day. How he ever understood what I was saying I’ll never know because I was blubbering like a crazy person, hysterically crying!
When I finally slowed to a whimper he put it all into perspective. He said, ‘It’s not the end of the world. We still have each other and our family, our health and the ability to start over.’
To this day that’s the greatest thing anyone’s ever said to me! He put in for a transfer with his job to a less expensive area to live, we sold our house and lost our ass, so to speak… but we did indeed start over.
So my advice is to focus on what REALLY matters… don’t try to be super woman because none of us are!
This is a fantastic post; thanks for sharing it on BF. I can totally relate and your example of the computer is spot on.
I’m an uber positive, happy person, but I found myself near tears this weekend at moments, very meloncholy. It’s because my brains on overload. I’m juggling so many things and my arms are exhausted.
Today, I’m going to focus on the moment at hand and go from there. That always gets me back on track.
Very well said! There have been many moments in life where I’ve wished that our brains could be more like computers in “downloading” information within seconds instead of taking up years of our time with attending school. When this thought runs through my mind I have to remind myself that I’m basically wanting humans to be robots. Then I take a step back! 😀
I look forward to reading what you did to solve the situation!
I’m visiting from SITS Blog Frog community. 🙂
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WOW Bernice, you definitely had too many windows open!! But still you sound like you are doing amazing things.
I look forward to following you as things simplify a little!
Good luck and see you around,
Forest.
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I think this is a brilliant way, especially in this day and age, to look at the overload that happens in our brain. It is a serious problem!
Thank you for this 🙂
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