This resonates so much! I’m constantly talking to my clients about the difficulty of having to exist in a societal system that isn’t made for our ND brains.
The tension between our values and needs with the structures we are stuck in can feel so overwhelming. But if we keep coming back to our values and use them as guideposts to navigate we can find ways to keep hold of ourselves within it.
Even the smallest tweak can help us to find balance and sustainability when everything seems to want to push us towards burn out. We just need to give ourselves permission to do it.
Sometimes these overwhelming dragons are only thoughts. Reframing helps and maybe it’s just the way we look at things that will bring ease and peace ✌️
They sure are. And even when they aren't just thoughts - they often don't hang around for ever. The holidays will come and go and I'll be able to settle back into a more sustainable pace.
I like what you've written so much. I write about living a creative, simple, happy life but life can feel complicated, dark, and overwhelming at times. Heart sink versus heart leap. But I am trying to work on the idea that even concepts like 'slow', 'simple' 'leap' etc etc can be ways to beat ourselves up with our own swords.
What I'm trying to explore right now is trying to accept all of my feelings and modes and gears and not run away from any of it.
I want to accept the fast as well as slow.
Complicated as well as simple.
Miserable as well as happy.
Heart sink as well as heart leap.
And to love myself and my life and the world despite my aspiration and yearning for simple, creative, happiness.
But I love the idea of burning it all down too! (Where is that match?)
Starting again.
But again, that feels to me like I'm trying to escape.
And as soon as I do that, I'm back in the busyness. I'm running versus walking—sprinting to some other reality that I hope will make me happier.
I'm trying to explore the idea that stillness comes with acceptance of all of it.
As Cheryl Strayed says: "Acceptance is a small, quiet room.”
So much to unpack here, Suzy! You're so right about the instinct to run and fire as both rebirth and escape. And your insight about our flagellating ourselves with these otherwise auspicious goals is spot on. It's one of the primary reasons I write about slowness. I have watched so many folks turn away from the idea because it became just one other thing on their to-do list, one more thing to 'fail' at.
I personally am super curious about the liminal space between striving and acceptance. Too far one way and we burn out, too far the other, and we live an unnecessarily small life. Somewhere in the middle is a brave life of purpose and intention. The messy middle is where all the good stuff lives.
As for that room, I think each of us carries it with us . . . and mine doesn't feel small, it feels vast, ever expanding outward like an internal cosmos, making space for *all* of the deliciously contradictory parts of myself.
Love this much. I had just moments before reading this finished my own post about end of year reflection and life after leaving FaceBook. You are right about the 'match' and the dragon. Fire like in a good ole Catherine Cookson novel are symbols of purging and purifying. I could not do my version and evolving version 'slow' with out the burning. Something always has to give. My dragon amidst many came to be 'the abyss' where words and energy, good ontentions and convictions went. The abyss is real. We will all have them. They are real and then they are not. I have burned mine and it has made all the difference. We get some perspective back with
So much depends
On a red wheel barrow
Glazed with rainwater
beside the white chickens.
William Carlos Williams.
Thanks for your words Stacey. You may enjoy mine also. Too many Gingernuts.
I think that since our lives are indeed prone to change and disruptions, hence the practice of living slow is something that we have to consistently manage and adjust, according to our own lives.
Stacey, I loved this line a - cardboard sword against a dragon. Loved how you folded it into the end of the story. Well done. D
Thanks Dave. Summed up how I felt yesterday looking at everything still yet to be done in the shop - my efforts felt flimsy in the face of it all.
This resonates so much! I’m constantly talking to my clients about the difficulty of having to exist in a societal system that isn’t made for our ND brains.
The tension between our values and needs with the structures we are stuck in can feel so overwhelming. But if we keep coming back to our values and use them as guideposts to navigate we can find ways to keep hold of ourselves within it.
Even the smallest tweak can help us to find balance and sustainability when everything seems to want to push us towards burn out. We just need to give ourselves permission to do it.
So true. One of my biggest ah-ha moments when I was recovering from burnout was recognizing that *I* wasn't crazy - my situation was crazy-making.
And you're totally right - at the end of the day, we simply have to decide.
Exactly, it’s seems so simple once we know, but there is so much to unlearn to make space for new knowledge and choices
So glad, you’ve found space.
Sometimes these overwhelming dragons are only thoughts. Reframing helps and maybe it’s just the way we look at things that will bring ease and peace ✌️
They sure are. And even when they aren't just thoughts - they often don't hang around for ever. The holidays will come and go and I'll be able to settle back into a more sustainable pace.
“Maybe that dragon is cardboard, too. Maybe it’s just patched together from Amazon boxes and packing tape.
Maybe it’s not a sword we need. Maybe it’s a match”.
Ah, I love it!! 👏🏼👏🏼💗
I deeply resonate with this, thank you for such a comforting read!
I like what you've written so much. I write about living a creative, simple, happy life but life can feel complicated, dark, and overwhelming at times. Heart sink versus heart leap. But I am trying to work on the idea that even concepts like 'slow', 'simple' 'leap' etc etc can be ways to beat ourselves up with our own swords.
What I'm trying to explore right now is trying to accept all of my feelings and modes and gears and not run away from any of it.
I want to accept the fast as well as slow.
Complicated as well as simple.
Miserable as well as happy.
Heart sink as well as heart leap.
And to love myself and my life and the world despite my aspiration and yearning for simple, creative, happiness.
But I love the idea of burning it all down too! (Where is that match?)
Starting again.
But again, that feels to me like I'm trying to escape.
And as soon as I do that, I'm back in the busyness. I'm running versus walking—sprinting to some other reality that I hope will make me happier.
I'm trying to explore the idea that stillness comes with acceptance of all of it.
As Cheryl Strayed says: "Acceptance is a small, quiet room.”
I just need to find the bloody room. 😂
So much to unpack here, Suzy! You're so right about the instinct to run and fire as both rebirth and escape. And your insight about our flagellating ourselves with these otherwise auspicious goals is spot on. It's one of the primary reasons I write about slowness. I have watched so many folks turn away from the idea because it became just one other thing on their to-do list, one more thing to 'fail' at.
I personally am super curious about the liminal space between striving and acceptance. Too far one way and we burn out, too far the other, and we live an unnecessarily small life. Somewhere in the middle is a brave life of purpose and intention. The messy middle is where all the good stuff lives.
As for that room, I think each of us carries it with us . . . and mine doesn't feel small, it feels vast, ever expanding outward like an internal cosmos, making space for *all* of the deliciously contradictory parts of myself.
Love this much. I had just moments before reading this finished my own post about end of year reflection and life after leaving FaceBook. You are right about the 'match' and the dragon. Fire like in a good ole Catherine Cookson novel are symbols of purging and purifying. I could not do my version and evolving version 'slow' with out the burning. Something always has to give. My dragon amidst many came to be 'the abyss' where words and energy, good ontentions and convictions went. The abyss is real. We will all have them. They are real and then they are not. I have burned mine and it has made all the difference. We get some perspective back with
So much depends
On a red wheel barrow
Glazed with rainwater
beside the white chickens.
William Carlos Williams.
Thanks for your words Stacey. You may enjoy mine also. Too many Gingernuts.
Graham
Thanks Graham. It's funny, water is one of my recurring themes but some days it just doesn't cut it.
I think that since our lives are indeed prone to change and disruptions, hence the practice of living slow is something that we have to consistently manage and adjust, according to our own lives.
So true. It's never one and done.