“How are you?” ~ “I’m busy” ~ “That’s great”

Is it really great?

What does busy even mean? Busy what?

Working. Learning. Creating. Busy being busy.

It’s such a subjective word that I really feel it should be wiped from our language!

In the Western world it’s often seen as a status to be proud of. Unless we’re busy we are not seen as being productive. And we all know that being productive is one of the keys to success right?

I’m not so sure. Feeling the need to always be busy can be counter-productive that it actually inhibits our success. We are constantly on the go that we never allow ourselves the time to actually sit with our thoughts and emotions. To reflect and reconnect.

How quickly are you reading this? Is the aim to get to the end as fast as possible so you can get on with the next thing or will you take a pause and absorb what you have read?

See how it lands and what comes up.

Even conversations feel busy, we go from one response to the next without giving ourselves the time to let it land, consider and then respond. We use paragraphs in our writing to signify a pause but this doesn’t seem to transfer into real life. If we transcribed most of our daily conversations they would look like one huge paragraph that your School teacher would fill with ‘np’ in big red letters!

We all need to take a rest sometimes, in fact I believe it is an essential part of our day. That moment when we stop and pause can be the most impactful part of your day. Step into nature, listen to the natural sounds around you, tune in with your breath or just watch the passing traffic.

Give yourself permission to take this rest. Ward off that feeling of guilt by reminding yourself, that this rest allows you to show up as your best self and that it’s vital to your existence.

So next time you’re asked how you are, how about telling that person about the rest you are taking not how busy you are. Maybe they’ll be inspired to take a rest too.

Do you want to overcome those thoughts that keep telling you, you need to be busy? Need help and support to banish those thoughts of guilt? Book in a 20 minute discovery call with me to discuss how I can help support you in your self-care journey, learn to show up more for yourself and ultimately enable you to connect authentically with others. Click HERE to get in touch.

‘We should see rest and reflection and passivity - and even - sitting on the sofa - as an intrinsic and essential part of life that is needed for the whole to make sense.’ Matt Haig

p.s. Matt Haig offers so many gems of wisdom and this is just one of them from his latest book ‘The Comfort Book’. If you don’t already follow him on IG you’re missing out so FOLLOW him now.