You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
Hey, it's Marielle.
Sometimes I like to sit still, close my eyes, and just take a little rest.
I don't mean take a nap.
I mean, I do like to do that too.
What I'm seeking here, though, is not sleep, but a reset, a moment of conscious pause.
If I don't allow for these moments, I hit a wall, and every other part of my life starts to suffer.
Dr.
Sandra Dalton Smith remembers when she hit her wall.
There was this moment when her kids were young.
She'd just pick them up from daycare,
set them on the couch to watch TV, and she had this realization.
She had everything she'd been dreaming of, a life that she'd worked hard to build.
I had a successful practice.
I'd already written a couple of books, had children, husband, house, you know, all the things.
My life on the outside looked extraordinarily successful and it did not feel successful at all to be in the middle of.
And so that particular day,
I just kind of laid on the floor looking up at the chandelier in my foyer thinking,
how did I get here?
Sandra is a doctor of internal medicine.