Why We Drift: Three Simple Grounding Practices to Stop the Overwhelm

When was the last time you actually tasted your morning coffee instead of gulping it down between emails?

Can you remember what you did last Tuesday? Or has it all blurred together into one endless loop of tasks and obligations?

You’re moving through life, but are you actually in it?

Here’s the truth you might not want to hear: You’re rushing from one thing to the next. Living in a constant state of stress and overwhelm. The little things—the moments that actually make up your life—are slipping through your fingers like water.

And now you can’t remember the last time you felt truly calm. Truly present. Truly here.

Meanwhile, your soul quietly whispers, “There has to be more to life than this”.

So, what if you could slow down enough to actually BE in your life? What if you could feel calm, present, grounded—even in the chaos? What if the life you’re rushing through could become the life you’re actually living?

I know, this sounds like another thing you need to do but this isn’t about adding more to your plate… 

It’s about coming back to yourself.

But first, let’s talk about why this is happening.

Why We Drift 

Drifting isn’t laziness. It’s not a character flaw. 

It’s a disconnection from your inner self.

Drifting is moving through life reactively instead of intentionally. It’s operating on autopilot, making decisions based on what you should do rather than what your soul is calling you to do. It’s living on the surface while the real you—the one with dreams, desires, and deep wisdom—gets buried under endless obligations.

Here’s why it happens: We’re overwhelmed. Our minds are cluttered with information, obligations, and constant noise. We carry mental to-do lists that never end. We’re always “on” with no space to just be. The modern world demands our attention in a thousand different directions, and we’ve lost the ability to give our attention to what actually matters.

According to a 2023 Gallup survey, nearly 65% of people report feeling disconnected from their sense of purpose at some point in their lives. You’re not alone in this feeling. But that doesn’t make it any less exhausting.

It may seem unimportant in the moment, but the cost of drifting is steep. 

You can’t finish what you start because your mind is too full. You jump from one thing to the next without completion. Missing all of the beautiful moments in between—the sound of your child’s laughter, the warmth of sunlight on your skin, the quiet satisfaction of a job well done. You lose touch with who you really are beneath all the noise. And the overwhelm compounds. It gets heavier. Making it harder to think clearly, to set intentions, to hear the whispers of your intuition trying to guide you home.

But here’s what I want you to know: You don’t need to overhaul your entire life to stop drifting. You don’t need a dramatic transformation or a complete life redesign.

You need tools. Simple, grounding practices that bring you back to presence. Small, consistent actions that create space in your mind and anchor you in the present moment.

Let me share three practices that will help you stop drifting and start living with intention.

Three Tools & Grounding Practices to Stop Drifting

Practice #1: Gratitude Journaling – Finding Presence in the Little Things

Gratitude journaling isn’t about making a list of things you’re supposed to be thankful for. It’s not about forcing positivity or bypassing real struggles. That won’t work. 

Gratitude journaling is about training your attention to notice what’s actually present in your life instead of what’s missing.

The key to gratitude practice that actually works? Being truly grateful for the little things. Not the grand gestures or major milestones—the small, ordinary moments that make up the fabric of your everyday existence.

When you practice honest gratitude for the little things, something shifts. You’re forced to slow down and actually notice them. 

For example, here are some things I’m grateful for: 

• Clean water. Water to drink, to bathe with, to clean my home. I could live in a place where clean water isn’t accessible, where it’s contaminated and makes people sick. But I don’t. And that matters.
• A safe, warm home. 
• For my son. 
• For the sunlight coming through my window right now.

These things aren’t dramatic revelations. And that’s the point. They’re real, tangible things that are easy to overlook when you’re rushing through your day. 

Practicing gratitude literally rewires your brain. It shifts your focus from scarcity to abundance, from what’s wrong to what’s working. When you come from a place of love and light you naturally attract more good into your life. Not because of some mystical force, but because you’re looking for it. And, when you’re not drifting – you’re present enough to see it.

How to practice gratitude journaling:

Start your morning by writing down three to five things you’re grateful for. Before you check your phone, before you dive into the demands of the day, give yourself this moment.

Focus on the small, often-overlooked things. Be specific. Instead of “I’m grateful for my family,” try “I’m grateful for the hug my son gave me this morning” or “I’m grateful for the sound of my partner making coffee in the kitchen.”

Write about things like:

• The warmth of your bed
• Your morning coffee or tea
• The ability to walk, see, hear
• A text from a friend
• The smell of fresh air
• Your favorite sweater

When you practice gratitude for the little things consistently, you stop rushing past them. You become present enough to actually experience your life as it’s happening. And here’s what’s beautiful: when you’re looking for things to be grateful for, more things naturally appear. Your attention shapes your reality.

Practice #2: Page Dumping – Clearing Mental Overwhelm

Your mind can only hold so much before it becomes cluttered and chaotic.

When something is heavy on your heart—or when you’re really excited about something—and it keeps spinning in your head on repeat, it takes up valuable mental space. You can’t focus on what matters when your brain is full of unprocessed thoughts, unmade decisions, and endless task lists you’re trying not to forget.

This is where page dumping changes everything.

Page dumping (or pages journaling) is exactly what it sounds like: taking everything swirling in your head and dumping it out onto paper. No editing. No filtering. And, no trying to make it coherent or pretty. You just write. Spelling mistakes allowed.

Think of your mind like a computer with too many tabs open. Everything slows down. Nothing runs smoothly. Page dumping is like closing those tabs—you’re not deleting them, you’re just freeing up the processing power to actually focus on what you’re doing right now.

When something is stuck in your head and you keep thinking about it, you can’t move forward. You can’t finish things. You stay frozen, unable to focus on other tasks because this one thing keeps demanding your attention. 

This is what causes people to drift—they’re so overwhelmed and they don’t know what to do, so they just kind of go from one thing to the next. They don’t finish something. They can’t complete it because their mind is too full, so they drift to the next thing, and then the next, never really accomplishing anything.

How to practice page dumping:

Take a page in your journal—or several pages if you need them—and just write. Don’t worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or even making sense. This isn’t for anyone else to read. It’s for you to release.

Write your fears. Your excitement. To-do lists. Things you are confused about. Or angry about. Write about your exhaustion. The conversation you keep replaying. The decision you’re trying to make. The dream you’re afraid to pursue. Anything and everything taking up mental real estate.

Let it all flow out without judgment. It might look messy. The sentences might be fragmented. You might switch topics mid-thought. That’s exactly the point.

What happens after you dump it all out? Clarity. Space. The ability to set an intention for what you actually want to do instead of being pulled in seventeen different directions by everything screaming for your attention.

You can finally finish things. And you realize you can now move through your day with intention instead of reaction. You stop drifting because you’ve cleared the path to see where you actually want to go.

Practice #3: Affirmations – Staying Aligned With Your Truth

Affirmations are reminders of who you’re becoming and how you want to show up in your life.

An affirmation can be a positive statement, a quote that resonates with you, a mantra, or even a saying that speaks to your soul. If it resonates, if it feels true in your body, it’s an affirmation for you.

I’ve been using affirmations for as long as I can remember. Even back in my track days in high school, my coach gave us affirmations. Whenever I needed something in my life, or when I saw something that spoke to me, I’d write it down.

But here’s when affirmations really started working for me: about nine to ten years ago, when I went deeper into my self-development journey and started learning about manifestation. I learned that affirmations aren’t just nice words—they’re tools that keep you aligned with your values, your goals, and your truth.

When you repeat affirmations (especially in your own voice), they rewire your subconscious mind. They redirect your thoughts from fear and doubt to possibility and power. They ground you in who you’re becoming, not who you were or who others expect you to be.

I love keeping affirmations on sticky notes on my shower door. While I’m rinsing my hair, I repeat them to myself. It’s become a part of my daily routine, and I find that it really helps remind me that I am creating my own life and I can be who I want to be. 

How to practice affirmations:

Write affirmations that resonate with where you are right now. They should feel true—or at least possible—when you say them. If an affirmation feels too far from your current reality, your subconscious will reject it.

Examples:

• “I am worthy of rest and ease.”
• “I trust my intuition to guide me.”
• “I am creating a life I love.”
• “I have everything I need within me.”
• “I am present and grounded in this moment.”

Place them where you’ll see them throughout your day:

• On your bathroom mirror
• On your shower door
• In your car
• On your phone lock screen
• On sticky notes around your workspace

Repeat them during transitions—while you’re in the shower, driving, working out, cooking, or getting ready in the morning. These in-between moments are perfect for affirmations because you’re not trying to force focus; you’re just allowing the words to wash over you.

The Think Up App – A Powerful Tool for Affirmations

A couple of years ago, someone turned me on to an app called Think Up, and it completely transformed how I work with affirmations.

The way it works is you record your affirmations in your own voice with music playing in the background. Then you can listen to them anywhere—while working out, falling asleep, driving, or just moving through your day.

Hearing affirmations in your own voice is incredibly powerful. There’s something about listening to yourself speak your truth that bypasses the critical mind and goes straight to your subconscious.

I put a bunch of affirmations that I’m currently working with into the app. I change them every once in a while as my goals shift or as I evolve. And here’s something beautiful I’ve noticed: when you record the same affirmations after you’ve been working with them for a while, your voice sounds different. Your vibration has changed. You’ve up-leveled.

The first time you might sound tentative, maybe a little monotone. But the next time you record—even if it’s the same affirmations—your voice is higher, brighter, more confident. You can literally hear your growth.

You can download Think Up and start using it today

Bringing It All Together – From Drifting to Living

These three practices—gratitude, page dumping, and affirmations—work together to create something powerful: space for you to be calm, present, and intentional.

Gratitude brings you into the present moment. It trains your attention on what’s actually here instead of what’s missing or what’s next.

Page dumping clears the mental clutter that keeps you stuck, spinning, unable to finish what you start. It creates the space you need to think clearly and set real intentions.

Affirmations keep you aligned with your truth. They remind you who you’re becoming and redirect your thoughts when you start to drift back into old patterns.

Together, these practices don’t add more to your overwhelmed life—they create breathing room within it. They give you back to yourself.

This isn’t about perfection. You don’t need to do all three practices every single day. You don’t need to journal for hours or have some elaborate morning routine. Start with the one that resonates most. Maybe it’s five minutes of gratitude in the morning. Maybe it’s ten minutes of page dumping when you feel overwhelmed. Or maybe it’s listening to affirmations while you drive to work.

Build slowly. Be consistent. Be gentle with yourself.

Some days you’ll feel grounded, clear, and present. Other days you’ll catch yourself drifting again. Both are completely normal. The difference now is that you have tools to find your way back. You know how to anchor yourself when life gets chaotic. You know how to create space when your mind gets too full.

These small practices compound over time. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. Affirmations playing softly in the background while you move through your day. This is how you stop drifting. This is how you start creating the life you’re meant to live—one present, intentional moment at a time.

The Invitation

You don’t have to keep drifting through your life like a stranger in your own story.

You have the power to come back to yourself. To be present. To just be.

These practices are your anchor. They’re how you create space to hear the whispers—the whispers of your intuition, your Higher Power, the Universe trying to guide you home. Those whispers have been there all along. You’ve just been too overwhelmed, too busy, too full to hear them.

Not anymore.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into connecting with your intuition and reclaiming your presence, I invite you to read my book, Whispers Within Us. This book will guide you through understanding the whispers that have been trying to reach you and teach you how to trust them, even when they’re asking you to do something that scares you.

You can find Whispers Within Us on Amazon here

And to support your journey with these grounding practices—gratitude, page dumping, and affirmations—I’m excited to share that a companion journal is coming this month. It’s designed specifically to help you cultivate gratitude, clear mental overwhelm, and stay aligned with your truth through affirmations on every page. Stay tuned for more details!

The life you’re meant to live is waiting for you. It’s not somewhere in the distant future. And it’s not contingent on everything falling into place. It’s right here, in this moment, in the space between the inhale and the exhale.

All you have to do is stop drifting long enough to notice it.

Love, Light, and Gratitude 🩵

Kathleen

More on How to Stop Drifting and Start Living

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