I was having a conversation recently, where I learned that fruit trees will drop fruit early if it goes through stress. When it doesn’t have enough energy and nutrients to sustain itself, it makes changes so that it can survive. Isn’t that an amazing metaphor for what humans should do?

I’ve had quite the lack of energy lately, and I’ve been slowly dropping the responsibilities and stress that I’ve piled onto myself. These things have not been personally fulfilling, except for being distractions from the inner working of my mind. I have a habit of drowning myself in tasks so that I don’t have enough quiet time to fall victim to my depressive and anxious thoughts. Instead, I make myself anxious because of how many things I need to accomplish. Then I fall into an even deeper depression for not accomplishing the insane number of things I’ve set out to do. It turns into a never-ending cycle.

Now, when I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, I think about fruit trees.

I’m constantly surrounded by unfinished projects. I have a lot of commitments that I should say no to. There are a lot of nights where I don’t want to do anything but cry because I’m overwhelmed by my to-do list.

When the fruit trees conversation happened, I couldn’t help but think about myself. I know when things are too much, but I continue to pile it all on because I want to be the perfect woman who can balance and juggle a thousand things at once. I want to appear as if I’ve got it all together. Here’s a little secret: I don’t have it all together. Not even a little bit. But, really, who does? Now, when I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, I think about fruit trees.

So, what then, can you and I learn from fruit trees?

• Make a conscious effort to look out for ourselves.
• When we’re overwhelmed, reevaluate priorities.
• Drop the less important things so that we can focus on what matters first.
• Drop the negative aspects of our lives that steal our happiness.
• And most importantly, we must rid our environments of toxic people, and thoughts or behaviors.

I’m inspired by nature, and how well plants and animals adapt to their surroundings so that they can survive. I look forward to treating myself better and living my best life by adopting the ways of fruit trees.