I don't know, maybe this is an open letter to myself. I find that every week and quite often, a few times a week telling friends, family and clients to not put so much pressure on themselves. If I really think about it, I've never noticed it as much as I do now. Maybe I'm older, a little bit wiser...? I don't know. I just find myself saying it so often. Why is that? Especially women too, it's like we have so much pressure on us to look and act a certain way, when we fail we just drop off the wagon entirely!
Everyday I can hear "I need to sort out my... *insert here something that we are doing that is not good enough". I'm not sure whether it is social media nowadays that plays such a big part in our lives that we feel like we always have to be 'on'. We scroll through hundreds of feeds looking at these other peoples lives thinking "why can't I be like them? Look at their body with three kids, a beautiful home and a full time job!". The truth is though, that is probably not their real life. It's only what they decide to post to fit in with their brand/lifestyle/feed etc.
I find that the more podcasts and youtube videos I listen to, the more I should be doing. I know, I hate that word 'should'. It's true though. So, I have set myself an intention (inspired by The Yoga Kula!) and that is to learn to rest. To learn to take a chill and enjoy a day off when I get one.
Being self-employed can be such an amazing thing and also a luxury I know, but you also find that you never really switch off. As much as I'm doing clients all day, when I come home I will be responding to emails and trying to get on my social media. So I guess my hours can span anything from 6am until 10:45pm when my head finally hits the pillow. Then on days off we see that as our time to 'get things done'. Do you ever find that? It's like we have two days off work and so we have to cram as much household chores/work/jobs etc in so we don't feel like we are wasting time. Well, I say we start to give ourselves some time to rest and relax. STOP PUTTING THE PRESSURE ON!
If you've just recently had a baby, don't start worrying about weight and getting back in shape! If you're going through a stressful time then maybe chocolate really is what the doctor ordered! You know, just sit back and think 'am I pressuring myself too much?' As Tony Robbins always says..
"Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in two or three decades."
So, for now my intention is to work when I'm in work and rest when I'm off! So, you might find I don't post as much as I was doing. I'm sorry, but it was getting a bit much for me with working full time as well.
I hope you understand and try and enjoy your down time as much as I have been doing... now, let's go make a brew! :)
Thanks so much for reading,
Big love,