Do more. Buy more. Rage more.
You know the drill. Shelves and shelves of books on time management tell you what to do and who is at fault. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” “Getting Things Done,” “The Power of Self Discipline: 5-Minute Exercises to Build Self-Control, Good Habits, and Keep Going When You Want to Give Up.” I haven’t read that last one but the title tells you everything you need to know – it’s your fault that you can’t keep up and you must keep going at all costs.
And then there are the self-help books telling you what’s wrong with you and if you just try this form of relaxation, meditation or decluttering things will feel so much better. And maybe it will, so add it to your to do list.
If that doesn’t work then the Instapot is sure to make your life easier. At least if you wear the latest jean trend you will look like you have your shit together and you haven’t given up on life. I remember truly hoping and believing that motherhood with young kids would be infinitesimally easier if I just had the right stroller, high chair and bouncy seat. I bought those things so quick, like my life depended on it, because I was drowning and the solutions being offered were not help, but stuff.
And now that you are burned out and broke you are presented with the latest rage-inducing headline that puts you into a state of complete numbness in which you can no longer think critically and your lizard brain is more likely to go along with the narrative that this is “their” fault. The culture wars are just a strategy that has been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years to pit people against each other, thereby distracting them from the larger power dynamics at play.
So here we are.
If this resonates with you then I have a radical idea and it starts with one word: enough. Repeat after me: “I am enough. I have done enough. I have enough.” Full stop.
Stop the rate race, get off the hamster wheel, take a break. You don’t have to do anything, you just have to stop doing ALL THE THINGS. If that is too extreme then slow your roll. Take your time, dawdle, stroll, putter. Be lazy! I give you permission to be lazy.
This is not a march-in-the-streets type of resistance, Slow Living is a quiet resistance. It is the little actions that you do, or in this case don’t do, every single day that will add up to fight the system that is killing you.
mette more slowly 