Three months into the year and many of us have already arrived at that place.  That place where we’re feeling overworked + overwhelmed.  That place where we’re feeling exhausted, jaded and confused.  That place where we start to second guess ourselves and wonder if all this effort + energy is really worth it.

So we declare we need a break…more time for ‘me’…and for a moment, we remember how important it is to make taking care of ourselves the number one priority.  We remember that taking care of ourselves is the one thing we cannot delegate.  It’s a priority that only we are solely responsible for.

But a few days go by…then a week…then a month, and the priority of taking care of ourselves fades into the background of accomplishing, striving, and getting things done,..until we arrive at that place yet again.  That place where we’re feeling overworked + overwhelmed.  That place where burnout + breakdown are just around the corner.

Stressing less, playing more, making self care a priority, stepping away from the computer and actually living life are hot topics at the moment.

Here are 5 other people talking about it (all in the last 48hrs)…AND doing something about it!

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This was the first post I read: Are you addicted to stress?  

Connie has this motto: “If something is working for me, serving me, supporting me, making me happy and taking me to where I want to go, then I keep doing it. If something is not working for me, draining me, damaging me, making me miserable and taking me further away from where I want to be, then I stop doing it.”

(This is pretty much my motto too.)

But this is where it gets juicy.  Connie mentioned “even though there are things that I know are not supporting me and are at times making me unhappy, I still do them”.  Sound familiar??  Can you relate??

So the question is, “Why do we sometimes indulge in habits, behaviours or thought patterns that do not make us feel good?”

To which Connie answered with a confession.  Even though she know’s stress is exhausting, draining, and soul-sucking and needs to drop it like it’s hot, she feels strangely addicted to stress and scared of what her life will look like without it. (Bingo!  Fear is the driving motivator here)

And she’s not alone!

Stress has definitely become the new norm.  We’ve forgotten what it feels like to be relaxed, open and wide awake to the present moment because we’re so busy living our lives stressing about the future or stressing about the past.  And for most of us, we only realise just how stressed we are when our bodies can no longer sustain it.

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Which brings me to the next post I read that morning by Alexandra Franzen: Why PLAY is a matter of life and death.

Alex opened up with 5 wishes…not hers…but they very well could be in 51years time according to the The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. Here they are:

1. I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself – not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I had let myself be happier.

Kind of crazy, huh?

Which is why Alexandra declared, “If most of us die wishing we’d laughed more, loved more, and played more . . . that we’d expressed our true feelings with bravery & immediacy . . . that we’d made joy an urgent priority, and worked far, far less . . . then (most of us) are living with inverted priorities. Out of whack. Simple as that.

Call it whatever you want: White space. Free time. Family time. Creative time. Love. Vacation. Integration. Off-grid blissery. Freedom. Flexibility. Fluidity. Abundance. Ecstasy. Exhilaration. Lightness. Stillness. PLAY.  We need more of it. Dramatically more. Our final breaths call for it.”

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This then brought me to Gabby Bernstein’s vlog: take a spiritual vacation.

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I then arrived here: Never stop exploring. 

Sian Richardson (the creative wizard responsible for Selfish for 27 days new look) reminds us to “stop running around like a crazy person and take time to LIVE our life. We get so chained to our computers + our ‘online lives’ sometimes, that we forget that there is a world out there to be explored.”  Her exploring involves a backpack, her cameras, and a train ride to somewhere…anywhere…it’s doesn’t matter.  This is the fuel that ignites her creativity + clears her mind.

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Which brought me here.  Tonight a friend of mine posted this AMAAAAAZING video on facebook.  Watch it + then reflect on the last two questions.

If you have arrived at that place know that you can shift it in a heartbeat.  It’s a just a matter of what you are saying YES too! 

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Pssst…Check out the sneak peek video for ‘Selfish for 27 days!’  Click here to see it!