Ep. 149: When Everything Feels Important, Do This First

Overwhelmed and juggling too many priorities? Here’s how to find clarity and calm in the chaos—without sacrificing what truly matters.

When everything feels urgent and your stress levels skyrocket, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important. Kohenet April N. Baskin shares powerful, practical tools to realign with your core priorities—fast. From deciphering which demands are “rubber” and which are “glass,” to embracing simple yet transformative practices like breathwork and EFT tapping, this episode equips you with the mindset and tactics to navigate overwhelm with grace. Discover how shifting your standards from “best” to “good” can unlock momentum and ease daily pressure.

You'll learn:

• Why not all demands are created equal and how to determine which are urgent vs. critical
• The metaphor of rubber and glass balls to manage work-life stress effectively
• Simple, effective practices like breath validation and EFT tapping to calm your nervous system instantly [Reminder: Go to Youtube and use the search term "EFT Tapping ________", for example EFT Tapping Overwhelm.] 
• The importance of nourishment and self-care during high-pressure moments
• How to create space for wonder, possibility, and supportive presence amidst chaos

Whether you're a busy professional, a parent balancing multiple roles, or anyone feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands, these insights will help you regain clarity, compassion, and resilience.

Remember, much of your stress is a matter of perspective—and with the right mindset, you can turn overwhelm into opportunity. Tune in to tap into your inner wisdom and find support in the process. Because, after all, there’s always time for what’s most important—and you are it.

Timestamps: 

• 0:44 — Settle in: breathe and find a little ease
• 1:49 — The core reminder: focus on what matters most
• 3:33 — Sorting the “rubber balls” from the “glass balls”
• 5:12 — Letting good be good enough
• 6:36 — Breathing and body-based calming practices
• 7:25 — Using tapping when stress feels too activated
• 9:05 — Nourishment and supportive inputs during hard seasons
• 10:11 — Reaching for additional support
• 11:14 — Closing reassurance and blessing
  
  

Ideal for anyone navigating high-pressure seasons, seeking practical calm, and ready to prioritize with ease.

For more info about Expert Ally on Call and to book your session, visit: https://www.joyousjustice.com/expert-ally.

Transcript

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Kohenet April N. Baskin (00:44)
Siyo, beloved.

I'm right here with you. Word on the street is that you are overwhelmed and everything is feeling important.

Have you anchored into your breath recently?

Let's dive right in here. And remember to breathe. And if you can access a sincere smile, if you're in a more neutral place, do that. And if we have stress levels that are too high, can you begin to access some relief and ease? Maybe roll your shoulders, practice breathing, maybe do a little EFT tapping on the karate chop point on your hands with your fingers.

Tapping or on your collarbone, tapping or putting pressure and breathing, breathing, breathe in love and flow with life. Let's do this. Okay, you're overwhelmed. Everything feels important. And in all likelihood, many things are important. Not everything, but many things. Hence the feeling that everything feels important. And when it feels like there are just too many big rocks.

'cause perhaps there are. I'm here to remind you beloved, that they are not all created equal. Don't worry, I'm not leaving you there.

Here's what I've learned over the years.

What I came to realize, I can't remember at what point I realized this around high school or college. I've had a personal practice for when I'm in this terrain, it's familiar terrain for me because of the circumstances of my life and because of my ADHD. It's very easy for me to get overwhelmed. And when it is particularly acute because both my internal experience as well as the external circumstances.

are such that there are in fact a lot of demands

Here's what I've learned to say to myself There is always time for that which is most important.

There's always time for that which is most important.

Breathe into that.

And the obvious question that flows from there for you, beloved, or me, when I'm practicing this is what's most important here? What's most important?

Colleague of mine once told me about the metaphor of rubber and glass balls. Perhaps you've heard it, that in the context of work-life balance or juggling of any life tasks or demands, and we just can't keep all of the balls in the air, it's important to remember that some of these balls metaphorically are made of rubber and they can bounce.

This thing can be late. there's not a huge penalty. And or it's not, we want to get it done now, but it actually isn't due for a while, for instance. Or these things can recover. And you need to assess because there are some things that could hypothetically recover, but it could cause damage, and it might be a kind of rubber glass ball. So So which of these are rubber balls? And there's likely one of these.

that is a glass ball and if you don't take meaningful action on it now, it will either break or cause substantial damage or harm and and it needs to be handled immediately.

So what is most important?

Often it's obvious to me or fairly obvious after thinking about it for 30 seconds to a minute or so, sometimes a little bit longer. But even just that statement is calming and it's refocusing that idea. So I invite you to try that on. And if you're struggling with it a bit, reach for a confidant or reach for a notebook and pen and do some journaling. What is most important here?

And that doesn't mean we don't attend to the other things, but they get to take a back seat. And we get to harness the power of our mind to place our focus on the thing that is most important. And even with that most important thing, it's often good and helpful to follow a good, better, best arc. One to assess, do I need to do this at a good level, at a better level, or at a best level?

And often, I don't know about your mind, but my mind defaults to it's gotta be the best. It's gotta be the best. Without even thinking. And good and best become conflated, but they again are not the same thing. So it can be helpful to assess which version of this and in the our panic we might think it has to be best, but often that isn't actually the case. It just needs to get done. Most things just need to get done.

And even if they do need to be better or best, normally the first step that can help us begin to move into this and approach it with ease and the full heft of our intelligence

is to go for good, is to lower our standards slash access the path of greatest ease and establish some momentum and then build and iterate and refine from there.

So that's the primary intervention here. And here are a couple other practices that can be helpful as well. A practice that I love that TikNat Han teaches.

is to do ten deep breaths that are natural for you and as you do them feel your body relax just take slow ten slow slash deep breaths.

You know, feel your body relax and or access a Shakina shower or God bumps, you know, feel chills throughout your body, access, connect with spirit and attune to a different energy flow in your body to help soothe you. Sometimes, often that's very, very helpful for me. Sometimes I can't even get my mind to think around that because

there's something very upsetting happening or I'm just more activated, in which case going on YouTube and searching E as an echo, F T, like Tom, EFT tapping, and then searching around whatever you might need, like stress, overwhelm or or what you're experiencing that you'd like some help to help shift the energy. overwhelm, high stress.

nervous system regulation, you can type any of those things in and likely one to eight or more videos will come up. Guided EFT tapping videos will come up and you can use those to help guide you through moving some of this energy. And so you can do this after this core practice of answering the prompt and reminding yourself that there's always time for that which is most important.

if you're still feeling jittery or uncomfortable. And also if you can't really access clarity around that, then doing EFT tapping or taking the breaths before you endeavor to answer that question can be helpful too.

The last piece I want to note is at times when we are experiencing a high degree of adversity, we also need to make sure we are caring for ourselves, but we don't have time to do all of the things. And so another practice that I engage in is checking in with myself and seeing like there's a lot of pressure for me around outputs in this time. And is there a particular input that is missing that I could

Or that is lacking that I can address in the next day or so. So that might be hydration, it might be reaching for more colorful produce and getting different natural vitamins in my system, maybe going for a walk, engaging in movement or dance to help move things out of my body. Dance doesn't always have to be happy. Can just be putting on music and shaking my whole body, taking a nap. Is there some input that doesn't have to take a lot of time?

Twenty minutes or less, up to an hour, depending upon the time you have and what you need and the extent of the need. And is there some kind of nourishment that you can give yourself to help you navigate this terrain?

You've got this. I believe in you. If you need more support, I encourage you to reach for that. And that support, if and when it makes sense, can absolutely include me, where I can both guide you through this process as well as access a range of other resources and tools in my vast suite of

insights, tools, and wise principles in my I wanna say arsenal, but that's so militant in my chest.

treasures. And you can do that through my

expert ally on call. One hour or ninety minute session. and it would be my honor to resource and help you bridge

personal or professional things. I am a pro at navigating adversity with love and creativity and dynamic choices.

There's always time for that which is most important.

So what's most important right now?

And remember that much of the time, part of that answer is you.

which is why I included that piece around nourishment.

All right, that's it for now. May you go from strength to strength. May you feel supported and guided internally and divinely if that speaks to you as you navigate this terrain and know that I am absolutely rooting for you. And on the other side of this, you don't need to answer it now. I wonder what wonderful things will come.

From what you are navigating. And it can be helpful for you to ask yourself that too. That's a practice I learned from Sonia Choquette, and I find it especially helpful, hence the wonder that we're not answering that right now, but we're just putting it in our mind to look for wonderful things that are coming.

All right, more soon and sending you much love and strength and solidarity in the meantime.