I’ve never run that fast,
I wasn’t prepared nor was I being chased by a live animal or serial killer from one of my true crime podcasts,
But I’d forgotten my meeting,
A meeting I’ve done with Em every week for the past 3 years,
It totally slipped my mind,
And I was 20 minutes from home when she reminded me.
 
As much as I actually impressed myself with my 2km sprint time,
This stupid error was a smack in the face reminder,
I need time off,
And I also need to chill out and focus on my priorities,
My clients,
My coaches, 
And my health.
 
Some of my brain space had been taken up with life things,
I needed to embrace this time as a reactive time of being,
Instead of proactive.
 
You see,
There are times in life when we must allow ourselves to be reactive,
Which sounds like the antithesis of responding not reacting,
A concept cultivated through mindfulness,
That creates space between stimulus and response,
Urge and action,
Craving and eating.
 
We simply cannot have a proactive approach to the world 100% of the time,
Despite the narrative peddled by hustle culture,
Diet culture,
Thankfully not meme culture,
It’s not conducive to a healthful life,
But it is conducive to dysregulation and burnout. 
 
When it comes to fat loss,
You’ll often hear me say,
You need to be in a deficit most of the time,
Not all of the time,
Which might look like some days,
Weeks,
Or even months at maintenance or slight surplus,
But most of the time,
In a deficit.
 
That’s what creates long-standing successful weight loss maintenance.
 
It’s imperative that you remember this in fact,
To help your mindset around the days you find you overeat,
Mindfully or otherwise,
That it’s simply one day,
And sometimes,
Even overeating relative to your deficit targets,
Is still a deficit relative to maintenance.
 
You might have grasped this concept,
If not then work with us at ETPHD coaching to create the optimal mindset around fat loss,
But when it comes to life,
You still struggle to rest,
With not being 100% all of the time,
With not always being focused on being more.
 
You spend all your days thinking you should be proactive,
Overdoing,
Then making silly mistakes,
Poor quality work,
And creating friction in your connections.
 
Why is it,
That you feel like you have to be progressing every day,
In some aspect of your life,
If not all,
In order to sleep well at night?
 
Why is it,
That simply being,
Surviving and thriving through another day,
Isn’t enough for you?
 
I don’t mean all the time,
Goals and ambition and purpose and forwards motion is an incredible thing,
Something most of us strive for,
That supports our mental health,
But some of the time,
Why can’t we just be?
 
As I come to the start of my entire week off work,
Where you won’t receive any emails,
You’ll see fewer (if any) social media posts,
You’ll even see a break in the podcast,
I’d love to leave you with these thoughts.
 
Journal on them,
Reflect on them,
And be super truthful with yourself.
 
Can you be ok with doing ok?
Not progressing,
Not pushing,
But rather,
Being?
 
When you consider the idea of being reactive instead of proactive,
Doing urgent tasks only,
And allowing the future focus to hold off,
How does it feel to sit with that?
To image being a working person who does just enough for a short while?
 
What’s the worst that would happen?
 
You are a human being,
Not a human doing.
 
I read something once that said,
You aren’t what you do,
Therefore you aren’t what you don’t.
 
Your progress and productivity does not = your self-worth. 
 
If this is something you struggle with,
Listen to this podcast,
I made it for you.
 
Have a beautiful weekend,
And next week,
I’ll be back in 9 days,
I know you’ll thrive regardless of your ‘progress’.
 
I’m always here,
Em x