Happy Wednesday! First, I want to apologize for not getting a post out last week. Between catching a minor bug, it being finals week, and having a job interview (I don’t want to say too much in case I don’t get the job, but prayers for a teaching position would be GREATLY appreciated!!!), the entire week got away from me, and I didn’t realize until the week was basically over that I hadn’t gotten a post out. Sorry about that!
Second, on to this week’s post!
Life can be a whirlwind sometimes. I know I’ve written about this before, but I think it’s good to bring up again, especially since it’s been a few years since I talked about it.
I was actually talking about this very subject with a friend the other day.
We can get into the groove of life so much that life starts driving us instead of us driving our lives. When I started working at the church in 2019, I felt like I was existing for Sunday mornings; my entire week was spent focusing on service and making sure everything was in place, Sunday came, I got home from church and crashed in a nap, had Monday off to recover, then went right back into the hectic planning again on Tuesday for the following Sunday.
I never took the time to breathe throughout the week.
Yes, services on Sunday were important. I mean, it’s the whole reason I was hired in the first place.
But I wasn’t living. I was existing. And there’s a huge difference between those two things. And maybe you’re in that realm right now: existing between the big events that drive your life. That can work for a little while, but eventually it all catches up to you. You turn around and realize you’ve missed months of your life and you can’t remember what you actually did during those seasons of your life.
And you start to question if it was actually worth it, especially when you crash.
Thankfully, when I worked at the church, I had already gone through several cycles of existing in my life previously—both when I was a teacher and with various volunteer positions at other churches. I didn’t need to wait for the crash to recognize that I was in an unhealthy cycle.
It’s okay to have a high-paced life, to an extent.
It’s not okay to allow the relationships in your life to suffer because you’re trying to “win at life” or because your life has become surviving from one goal to the next. It’s not okay to let your health (physical, mental, spiritual) decline because you were too busy to assess where you are. It’s not okay to stop living because life took over.
Are you understanding the difference here?
It happens to most (if not all) of us. It’s very easy to fall into this pattern of existence, especially when trying to make ends meet or trying to reach the goals culture has told us are important.
But there are things that are much more important.
So if you find yourself somewhere in the cycle of no longer living but existing, trying any or all of these will help:
- Take a day off.
- Turn off your electronics (all of them) for an hour at least once a week.
- Schedule a date night with your significant other at least once a week, this is just as important for married couples as it is for those who are dating.
- Have a staycation/Go on vacation—not everyone can afford a vacation, and not every vacation experience is relaxing, so staying in can be just as important.
- Take a real lunch break and not a working lunch “break.” Daily.
- Set boundaries. If your workday ends at 5, don’t take work phone calls after 5, even if it’s your boss who calls, but communicate that with your boss beforehand.
- Pamper yourself—I realize how guilt-inducing this can be for some people, but it’s okay to, every once in a while, go out and do something nice for yourself, even if it’s something small.
Just shifting your perspective, realizing that you’re in the cycle of existing over living, can have a significant effect on the way you behave and your attitude. Give it a try and let me know how you’re doing!
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Brittany Stonestreet 