Pause. Is Your Pace Sustainable?
Once when I was at the wellness mecca Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health leading a women’s retreat (join me here Oct. 16-18), I met an executive who was the dean of a large medical school. She said they had just added a class on life balance and resiliency to their medical school curriculum. But, she wonders if her young doctors in training will see the value of this course for their patients—and themselves—as they navigate their intense pace and succumb to the seduction of productivity.
Sustainability is often defined as the capacity to endure, the long-term maintenance of responsibility and, I would add, the long-term maintenance of self.
Most of us are living at a pace that is unsustainable—what I would call an inhumane pace. We throw our energy around like handfuls of rice grains at newlyweds. We’re overextended, over-scheduled, racing through our to-do lists and we rarely pause before we say “Yes,” to requests.
Our energy is precious. It’s the currency that allows us to do things in the world. And it’s finite. But we rarely honor it or see it as sacred (which it is!).
As you consider your next request, project or invitation ask yourself:
- Will this activity or relationship feed me or drain me?
- Is my intuition saying “Yes” to this request, or “No”? (Pay attention to the sensation in your gut—the body never lies.)
- Does being around this person, group or organization make me feel positive, negative or neutral?
- In this situation, what is uniquely mine to do? And know that very often, the answer is, “Nothing.”
During my twenties and thirties—perhaps like the medical students—I ran myself hard. I would push and push and then live for the weekends where I’d crawl to a yoga class, live for happy hour with friends or take in a massage– finally allowing myself to slow down and add a few cups of water to my dry-as-a-bone well.
But the chronic stress began to take a toll and in my late thirties, I became clear that I didn’t want to just “survive”– I wanted to thrive. I wanted to find a sustainable way of living that supported me in maintaining an unwavering allegiance to myself, making choices that left me feeling alive, whole and resilient, and generating and building energy reserves for yet-to-be-manifested dreams and desires.
While leading a support call for leaders recently on managing your energy, not just your time, I shared that even when I’m working on something big that is energy intensive—like launching a book or changing a learned behavior—I want to land on the other side of the experience feeling replenished and nourished. I want to feel like I have not abandoned myself and I have paused frequently to remind myself that, “Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.”
Warmly,
FOUR WAYS TO PRIORITIZE YOUR SELF-CARE:
- Want to offer new ways to help your employees or organization feel more creative, focused and energized? For more than 25 years I’ve been designing multi-dimensional work-life alignment workshops, keynotes, and retreats for groups around the globe. Learn more.
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- Live in the Southeast or near North Carolina? Join me in the NC Blue Ridge Mountains for a Wild Souls Adventure: authentic movement classes, community song circles, full moon hikes, meditation/resiliency workshops, women’s circles & more or have me design a custom experience/ritual for your team/friends: learn more. Join us for public Wild Souls Authentic Movement classes Sundays in Brevard, NC outside of Asheville; learn more here.
