Toxic Productivity

“The phenomenon where individuals, particularly high-achieving women, feel an incessant need to be productive to validate their self-worth.”

Can you relate?

I can.

And I have seen this up close and personal for a few beloved clients in recent times too.

When we push down our own needs and keep giving more and more, we often feel that it’s in service of others.

But often the absolute opposite of being of service to ourselves.

So, we end up exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, unwell.

Burnt out and depleted.

When our need to keep other people topped up, happy and supported is at capacity, we’ve forgotten to put ourselves on own priority list.

We’ve stopped listening to our own inner wisdom about what we need to thrive, not just survive.

We are conditioned to believe this is normal, but there is very little that’s truly normal about it.

It can take time, patience, practice and a big dollop of self-compassion to start advocating for our own needs, as much as we advocate for others.

• We don’t have to be available to everyone, all of the time.

• We don’t have to be the sounding board for everyone’s stream of consciousness offloading.

• We don’t need to immediately answer every email, text, what’s app or messenger within 5 seconds of receipt.

• We don’t have to always be the person that has the answer or does the thing.

• We can allow ourselves to disappoint others when we need to say no.

• We can allow ourselves to prioritise taking care of ourselves first.

• We can allow ourselves to rest.

• We can be ok with stepping away from situations, people and places because what they want, doesn’t align with what we want.

• We can allow ourselves to be enough. Even if it’s just for right now.

Love + kindness are superpowers.

They are magic.

And we need to show more of both, especially to ourselves.