Oliver Wendall Holmes stated: “Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind over-tasked.”

That statement officially says it all. I am insane. I know many of you already knew that, but I was in denial. I don’t know if my mind was ever accurate, but it certainly is over-tasked.

I have let the stresses of life take over again. I realized that it was out of control the morning I was praying for my daughter as she was going through some medical tests. I was trying to say the Lord’s Prayer. I had to keep restarting. I could not get to the end without thinking about all I had to do at work.

Thoughts of writing a column, helping plan a Red Hat event and many broken-down computers kept wafting through my mind interrupting my prayers. I also needed to take a salad for our Bible study group that was meeting that night, and during my prayer I was stressing about trying to find the time to make the salad. I started my prayer over and over again until finally I could concentrate on praying for my daughter.

I don’t think my scattered mind is much different from many people I know. Multi-tasking has become my normal in order to get things done and keep everything flowing.

Many of my friends have the same problem and run in the stress race with me. If we kept track, I wonder which of us would win. Maybe instead of asking the question which one of us would win, we should ask the question, which one of us is actually getting the tasks done right while we are multi-tasking.

Mr. Holmes was very right. When we are over-tasked we are on the brink of insanity. Logic does not enter in. The wise person in my household (don’t tell him I said that) tells me that I do it to myself.

He is right. I over-schedule and sometimes or most of the time, I let others dictate my schedule because I don’t want them to be unhappy. I over-schedule myself like I am Superwoman and then I complain with these words “I am not Superwoman.” In all reality, no one thinks I need to be Superwoman except me.

I know many women who are super. I wonder if they are just as stressed as I allow myself to be.

Something happened to me when I was finally able to concentrate on the prayer and finish it. My breathing slowed, my mind calmed and I could take a breath and start feeling the joy again. All in the space of minutes the stress left my body. Some will tell me it was the prayer, and I absolutely know that it was part of it. It was also the fact that I took the time, minutes to slow my body and to slow my mind and to breathe.

The insanity left and logic (well, whatever logic my mind can have) returned. I can’t tell you how long it is going to stay. It will probably stay only until the next task comes along that I know I need to add to my list of Superwoman endeavors.

I saw the movie “Surrogates” recently. Even though I usually like science fiction, I found it funny. It’s not a comedy so apparently I have a warped sense of humor. My mind was also thinking throughout the movie, “Who would want to live your life from a chair through a robot?”

However, after some stressful life moments there are times I maybe would like a surrogate to live my life. If I didn’t feel like going to work or I had a task I didn’t like my surrogate could do it. If it was storming and I didn’t want to trek out of the house for food or work or to take Sam on a walk, my surrogate would do it. Of course, I probably would have to have a surrogate for Sam, too, because he doesn’t like rainy weather, either.

My surrogate could go to the dentist for me, wait in long lines during the Christmas rush and go skydiving so I could experience the emotion but not worry if my parachute was going to open. No risk.

Why do we try to be everything to every one? Why do we try to accomplish much more then we know we are capable of in one day? We know it isn’t possible. We know it stresses us out and yet we keep the denial going.

A friend recently called to say, “Five o’clock. Don’t keep working because you need to be here.”

I thought she was talking about a costume fitting for the costume she is making for me. As she kept talking I was getting more confused. Finally I said “Are we talking costumes?” She said “No, we are talking a massage.”

She is a massage person. My answer to that was “Maybe next week, I don’t have time for a massage right now.” She proceeded to give me her opinion on the state of my tight muscles and why I needed to take time.

Of course, I ignored her and just went for my costume fitting. I flitted in and flitted out to my next task. Who in their right mind would turn down a massage?

What else is that if it is not insanity where logic has left the building?

We don’t have surrogates in real life that can live our lives for us. We only have ourselves. We are the only ones who can stop the craziness in our lives called stress. My solution: Let’s issue a stress alert much like we issue a Weather Alert.

The buzz goes off on our TV and radios and computers. We hear these words: “This is a stress alert. You are advised to stop what you are doing. Take a breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Do this 10 times. Remember a stress alert has been issued when conditions are right for a stress overload. This message has been brought to you by your stress alert network in conjunction with the National Stress Alert Center.”

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net or visit her blog at www.justalittlefluff.blogspot.com.Listen to KBEW AM radio 1:30 p.m. Sundays for “Something About Nothing.”