Before we get into this week’s post, in an effort to write articles that you will find useful, I have a few questions to ask:
Is there anything in particular that you would like me to write about?
Is there an aspect of writing that you would like my input on?
Do you have a specific writing problem – I’d love be your agony aunt?
Outside of writing, do you like life-lessons articles? Again, is there a specific topic on which you would like my thoughts?
Please hit reply and send me a quick answer to one or more of those questions? Or leave your thought in the comments.
Thank you.
On with the article…
Don’t Do More
Recently, after months of ups and downs caused both my health issues and my husband’s brain injury, I finally feel like my life is stabilising. I’m not back to “normal” levels of energy but I do feel more resilient with what I have.
The temptation is to “do more”. I probably can handle a little more than I’ve been able to manage for the eighteen months whether that is exercise, writing or just having a life.
However, the phrase “do more” has become very toxic to me.
I’ve spent years trying to “do more”. I’ve crammed in exercise regimes, writing regimes and faith activities around the “must do” tasks such as working, caring for my elderly parents and being a wife. I was always interested in morning routines, productivity hacks and time management techniques to “do more”.
For most of my life, I have always filled all my spare time with goal-driven activities, wanting my time to be “productive”. Rest and relaxation were not part of my vocabulary, or my schedule.
In 2020 my mental health complained. I realised I was in an acute state of burnout. Then in 2021 and 2022, my physical health complained and my body crashed.
Since then, I have been learning very valuable lessons about self-love, self-worth, being kind to myself and seeing the importance of rest and just having fun. Someone once advised me to embark on chronic play rather than chronic worry. Chronic play – what a lovely concept – and I’m getting much better at it.
Now, every time I catch myself thinking or uttering the words “do more” I stop myself.
Instead, I say, “do gently”.
I wondered if this would be a useful concept for you to consider.
Are you trying to “do more” in an unrealistic or stressful fashion?
Is there anything you could “do gently” instead?
If you sat down and listened to your body, what would it love you to do? Or not do?
That’s all. It’s a short, food for thought lesson this week.
Let’s do gently
Cali x
Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash
Write more about chronic play!! I feel like i’m not being very creative with my writing. The photos, yes. But the writing, I feel like I could just be so much more playful and experiment. I was doing it at one point and now I’m kind of just getting through it. I’d love to think a little bit about how to be more playful. It’s hard to be playful when you just feel like there’s so much to do!
Hey, Cali Bird, one of the reasons I peak-in here is that I spend the great bulk of my creative energy writing for work, which is satisfying, but the cabinets full of ideas for personal writing projects go unattended. That said, my work is important to people such as you and your husband. My partner also suffers from a brain injury, as well. She uses my company’s products daily or she is otherwise dysfunctional with pain. I’m not on substack to promote product, and I’m not sure how you could share a shipping address with me, but I would be happy to send you and your husband product to try. Be well, thank you for being here for me.