Dear Sri Deepa,
I can tell You my own opinion about this subject,and how it is happening in my case. My thinking is that we should,how much we can,avoid to much duties if we cannot menage to do them in the right spirit. And it is indeed difficult to do many things in same time,to atend to so much duties,and stay optimistic and healthy. We,with this "birth' have one main and only true duty,and that is search for our real nature,our sadhana. Other then that we have those most obvious,like You mentioned,rising the child,taking care of our familly members,etc. These are,by my thinking duties we need to attend,any other then that is truly too much. Even these are very hard to bear,and are very enough. Anything which we can avoid is a must,my thinking. If we wish to preform these necessary duties good,and save our health,we need to have atleast some peace of mind. Sometimes we can not avoid doing many things,and thats the time to take that with best aditude we have,bearing in mind that it will pass like all doas. But,even then we need to have some time to gater energy and strenght,to rest,or enjoy in some way so we can relax.
I dont know,in my case,i always tryed not to absorb too much everything Which happens around me,when i had too much things to do,but later,i dropped many,coz i realised that my spiritual pursuit is much more important,and my mental and emotional health too. So my advice for You,dear Sri Deepa is to avoid everything which brings mental,phisical and spiritual weakness,in that measure that You feel it is too much for You. We live in so fast and crazy time that we need rest and have some peace of mind. That doasnt have the price,and like that we will do everything much better. It is very important.
With love and prayers,
