There was a day last week that felt like something was in the air. More than one friend was trying to do “way too much.” Myself included.
And a state of overwhelm came because of it. And a round robin of listening happened that got me thinking:
Why so much attachment to getting so much done? Is it my job to accomplish so much? Why can’t one take a day off and not feel guilty about it. Our modern society is a mixed blessing that leaves me wishing for simpler times.
There was a time I myself had no sense of balancing when I was on and when I was off; working fourteen hours a day sometimes and never rejuvenating my very Soul Self. I claimed that I loved my work so that it wasn’t even work for me. And I could never get enough done, or the quality of my work was lacking, or even if someone else said it was fine, I was never satisfied. I simply couldn’t do enough.
So what was the truth of what was really going on? Why do I at times make my life so hard to keep peaceful, balanced, and in concert with the physical world around me?
In the Method of what it takes to have a Healthy Sense of Self, Antoinetta refers to the things that drive us that are indirectly motivated as the very themes that we identify with so much that we have no awareness of a Natural Sense of Self , but rather we live according to what our Substitute Sense of Self dictates.
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What part of us needs to make such long lists, complicate things more than they need to be?
What part of us drives us to work so hard to please, complete, compete and not just against others, but ourselves?
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There are seasons for a reason.
A reason for Winter.
A reason for Spring.
A reason for Summer.
A reason for Fall.
And then it begins again.
When did the need to accomplish so much become part of how we define our selves?
This meditation is not over for me, but it is time for a good night’s rest–that I know I deserve.
And I do know this: We would do well to look to the natural seasons being themselves for guidance.