Break the Cycle: Not Treating Yourself as a Burden!

“Self-care is never a selfish act — it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.” — Parker Palmer

“I’ll take the break in an hour! I need to finish XY and Z first, no room for postponement! Sounds familiar, because we’ve all been through such situations.

Now, imagine it’s another person who’s asking these things from you. Let’s say you have a boss or a manager beside you, and every time you say: ‘Hey, I need my break, I haven’t eaten in 7 hours, haven’t had a break in five, been on my feet for however long,’ I just need to sit and relax for a few minutes’.

It’s like an authoritarian part of your mind, represented by past, real, or fictional stories, is taking over. It’s like someone, like a boss or supervisor, a teacher saying, ‘Uh, you gotta do three or four more things first, just keep going for an hour!’

Moreover, that same character, no matter the reason, always made you wait, always had a delay between when you asked for something and when you received it, and the delay is usually quite long. So, I ask you now, ‘How will you feel about that person?’

“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha