Give a Little Less, Breathe a Little More

There are times when it can feel like the weight of the world will crush you.

The longer you carry the load, the heavier it becomes. The heavier the load becomes, the more stories you tell yourself about why you are carrying it. And before you can blink, you find yourself under constant stress, sleeping poorly and feeling like you’re on the edge of exhaustion.

You find your thoughts wandering to what it might be like to simply collapse and let yourself fall into oblivion. For a few minutes you might even wonder what it would be like to sink into a chair and have someone drug you into senselessness, so you might escape your life for just a little while … and then you guiltily remember all the things you’ve promised to everyone else and the way the world would collapse if you didn’t deliver.

So you soldier on.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, we’ve accepted conditioning that has led us to believe that we have to be stressed and exhausted before we can be successful. We’ve grabbed hold of this story, taken it by the arms and run away with it until it is so ingrained in us that we cannot see otherwise … to the point that we now live our lives with this belief as a guiding principle.

Often, we don’t find out that living this way is doing us significant damage – at least, not until we suffer a traumatic event that brings us to our knees. Part of the problem is that our current way of living allows us clarity only when we stand still long enough for the message to be received.

Why do we live like this?

We’re educated, intelligent people, right? So what compels us to live our lives in such an insular manner, completely oblivious to the speed with which we are storming down a pathway that ultimately allows us one of two outcomes: death or destruction?

The answer is simple. We live our lives at such speed – and in such an unconscious way – that every action, thought and reaction is made on auto-pilot, without any thought given to the outcome for ourselves.

We struggle blindly from crisis to crisis, fighting nobly to put out the ‘bush fires’ of our life, and desperately focus on the next mini-break that might offer us salvation.

We give everything we have to everyone around us because we believe that this fulfils an unwritten contract that will guarantee we will be successful. We drain our energy resources until there is nothing left, in the hope that this means that we will be rewarded.

In reality, we’ve forgotten that we have the power to direct our own life. We’ve forgotten that we have the power to make decisions for ourselves. We’ve forgotten that there is another way to live.

The thought of stepping away from all the commitments you’ve made to everyone around you is something that brings great fear to the heart of most of us. But here’s the thing: the weight of the life we’ve created is too significant for most of us to maintain for very long.

Living life differently is as simple as learning to ask yourself a few simple questions; questions that help you to make conscious decisions about what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it.

For most of us, being able to step away from just one of our commitments is enough for us to find some room to breathe a little more. Room to breathe increases our ability to think, and when we have space to think, we are more likely to make decisions that are better for everyone around us – and, perhaps more importantly, for ourselves.

It’s time to recognise that the way we’re currently living isn’t working for us. It’s time to understand that by giving a little less, we give ourselves space to breathe a little more … and that by breathing a little more we’re creating a better world for everyone around us.

Want more info on ways to create more space in your life? There are loads of tips and tricks on living and thinking differently in my book ‘Keep It Super Simple’ – you can buy a copy from www.sheiqlife.com/shop.