The stress of our lives can at times be a steady flow or sometimes even feel like a firehose was turned on. No matter the levels of stress you may be feeling right now, taking some time for yourself to just rest, reconnect with your inner spirit and to nourish yourself is just as important as doing all the other very important things in your life.

Maybe even more important, for we cannot give from an empty cup!

Yet how often do we feel guilty for taking an hour or even a day to ourselves? (Yes, you ARE overloaded if you can only dream wistfully of a day to yourself, yet that might be the very thing you need for your health!)

When we’re hit with a difficult life event, it becomes even more important to take some time to process what happened and to be able to come to that place of inner peace once more.

I have been AWOL for a couple of weeks, and while I felt much better mentally and physically after a couple of days, I didn’t feel my authentic writing voice had quite returned, so I decided to just lie low and not write.

As many of you know by now, I am working on a bio-novel, based on parts of my life, quite difficult to write, and I felt guilty about not touching the manuscript for around 3 weeks now.

This guilt of not writing is a real thing, I have heard others express their feelings when they weren’t able to write, and were very worried about losing some readership if they didn’t posts frequently.

We know that writing from the heart takes energy from us, and it is difficult to keep that tap flowing at all times. Sometimes we just need to turn off the tap, and do something else, while we gather ourselves back together once more.

This isn’t being rude or disrespectful to our readers, nor is it a terrible thing to do in other areas of our lives, but instead it is a sign of good mental and physical health practices to unplug and recharge!

We aren’t machines… they need to be plugged in to recharge, while we recharge optimally by unplugging! Funny thing isn’t that?

So where does the guilt come from?

Unspoken expectations! These can come from our own minds if we think we need to constantly perform at peak levels to be approved of (or to have followers). These can also come from other people who have gotten used to us not having healthy boundaries and constantly expecting us to take care of everything!

When these expectations come from our own selves, sometimes we need to give ourselves PERMISSION to set some healthy limits and say no! We can become quite manic about feeling we have to accomplish everything we add or others add to our to-do list, but honestly, we probably don’t!

When these expectations come from other people and we’re overloaded and getting burned out, setting some healthy limits and boundaries is vital, or we’re just going to drop in our tracks!

Years ago I heard people saying “Hard work never killed anyone!” when in fact people die of heart attacks and other stress induced illnesses every minute of the day!

Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to shift into a slower gear and not expect ourselves to constantly be doing, giving, performing, writing, caring and problem solving!

We need to realize that life works in cycles. Nature herself works in cycles of being very productive and other times are fallow, where plants and animals rest and gather strength.

We are no different! We too have cycles, whether we want to acknowledge them or not. We live in a world where we are expected to produce at higher and higher levels. “What is your 5 year plan of growth?” “How can you improve?” etc. etc.

When we’re exhausted or our reserves are tapped out, we feel GUILTY that we cannot perform at peak levels all the time, yet we weren’t designed to do that!

The work will always be there, but if we don’t practice taking some slower days or weeks, will we?

If you have difficulty giving yourself permission to shift into a slower gear, then I will *wave my wand* give you permission to give yourself permission!

You’re welcome!

More thoughts:
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading!
Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose!
Never Stop believing in hope. Miracles happen everyday.
If you knew who walked beside you at all times on the path you have chosen, you could never experience fear of doubt again.
Being spiritually awakened goes hand in hand with being deeply involved in ‘ordinary’ life, not withdrawn from it.
BE PATIENT when it seems thing are not going right
Appreciate your divine place in the scheme of things. We are all blessed with gifts from above.
I don’t believe in an outside agent that creates the world, then walks away…
A word on Miracles. Don’t let those that have not yet transpired, blind you to those that have.
Life is a series of tiny miracles. Notice them.
I am realistic. I expect miracles!
The Universe sends us a trail of breadcrumbs to follow.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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Blessings!
Thank you for sharing this post and for following me!
Tamara

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