You weren’t born to keep up. That idea has been sinking in to me heavily the last several weeks. Underneath the surface at first, as I couldn’t quite put the words to it. But now after lots of reflection, introspection, reading, meditation, and yoga I can understand the heavy pressure that has been laying on me and the mental tug of war going on inside of my brain.
In yoga our goal is to unite the mind, the body, the soul. They are all connected and so when our soul and our mind are not at rest, our body struggles to be at rest too. This leads to fatigue and lethargy which then goes back into our mind and back into our soul and can unleash depression and/or anxiety. Then we’re stuck in this place of discontentment and sadness that can be really hard to yank ourselves out of.
I had found myself there and now that I have the words connected to my feelings I can let go of this really heavy burden that I’ve been carrying and that the majority of the population holds on to. We aren’t born to keep up. We are born to live our lives and forge pathways for our authentic self. Our authentic self is vastly different from those around us. We were brought up with different beliefs, experiences, lifestyles, and trauma that shapes our perceptions and who we are- both on the inside and out. And yet while we are all so beautiful and divine, we are all chasing a life trying to keep up with everyone based off messaging such as- “you need to hustle” or “you’re not hungry enough” or “you need to do more” or “this is a great start!”
Maybe you like hustling, maybe you love finding hunger for new things and chasing it until 2am, maybe you thrive off doing more. There’s nothing wrong with these things if it’s what brings you joy and lights up your soul. But it isn’t for everyone and I think it’s so important that we figure out what our values are and what makes us truly feel good instead of us all trying to fit into one box.
For me, hustle isn’t involved. I’m not denying that it feels great to create big goals and smash them out of the park or that I never set goals but that’s not what I dream of doing with my whole life. I want to make goals that add true value to my life in a way that nourishes my mind, body, and soul. I don’t need to be rich, I don’t want all the things, I don’t need to be constantly chasing down a goal or project. For me- I need space, time with my loved ones, a slow enough life I can stop and enjoy the small beauties of the world, and share with others the things that I know.
I don’t need to be known to everyone, I don’t need to do all the things and go to all of the places. It exhausts me and it doesn’t lead to true happiness to in my life. But yet I had spent the vast majority of my life chasing, hustling, figuring out what’s next, how to accomplish everything in a short time span, to make my bank account huge, I can go on. I got sucked back to that place the last few months and then was left with a tired soul, exhausted body, and frazzled mind.
I made a turn though as I had many times in life (and will go on to) and I leaned in more to find what felt good, to what made sense. I remembered who I was at my core and what I wanted from life, I remembered the things that brought me joy and I jumped in. Then I saw with such clarity what the problem has been, and now I can let it go and embrace the richness I’m actually after. I hope you can too.
Signing off from the mat after an eye opening practice,
Kate
PS: The post isn’t referring to any kind of making ends meet. I have to do those things too ❤
Yoga with Kate 