Today’s newsletter is ironically about taking breaks (ironic because I’ve been taking a break) This is a topic that I struggle with from time to time, even know as i type this. We see motivational posts on social media that encourage us to chase our dreams and never give up. Hustle culture tells us that we need to keep going because we wont make it if we stop. But what happens when life makes you stop?

If you develop a mindset of “always work never stop never quit” then what happens when something happens that makes you have to stop? What happens if you’re going hard in the gym for months and never take a real break but then you get an injury that makes you stay out of the gym for a while? What happens if you never take a day off from work because that’s just not what you do but then you get a contagious sickness that makes you have to stay home for a few days?

I don’t know about you but I know where that leads me and that’s DEPRESSION. When I cant do the thing that I told myself I absolutely have to keep doing no matter what then I get depressed. I find absolutes to be a very harsh thing. When we assign an absolute to ourselves and say “this is the only way and i have to do it” I feel like that’s ignoring part of our humanity. Because everything that we do is a spectrum. We experience a spectrum of emotions, we have a spectrum of thoughts and a spectrum of goals desires. We aren’t machines and there’s no shame in putting a task or responsibility down every now and then to take a break and experience the spectrum of life. Choosing to rest from time to time is a lot better than being forced to rest; its a lot easier on your mind when the rest is a choice rather than rest ending up being one of life’s non negotiables.