Hi my friend,
How are you?
You didn’t hear from me last week becuase we had a scheduled, island-wide power outage here in San Pedro. For the entire day, there was no electricity and no Wi-Fi.
I knew it was coming. Although it was posted in our community facebook page, the personal "pass the message along" worked extrememly well.
I started preparing. The extra battery packs. Make sure everything is charged to capacity.
When the power went I, I was full of confidence - work can continue!
But as time went on, I felt anxious.
Once all my battery ran out, I went from feeling a little anxious to very anxious.
I kept thinking about everything I should have been doing. The work that was waiting. The messages I could not answer. The things I could not move forward without electricity, internet access, or the systems I rely on every day.
For a good part of the day, I resisted the interruption. I was so frustrated. Waiting and watching the clock for the appointed time the power was to be restored (which was much later by the way :)
And then, at some point, I stopped.
I surrendered
I laid down.
I fell asleep.
Not the light kind of rest where part of your mind is still working through a list. I genuinely slept.
And then I rested again the following day - after the power was fully restored - I continued to sleep.
That surprised me.
The power had returned, but apparently, mine had not.
My body was telling me something that my schedule had not allowed me to hear: I was tired.
Not simply sleepy.
Tired from running, carrying, deciding, building, responding, and keeping so many things moving.
Sometimes we believe we will rest when the work is finished.
But for accomplished, high-performing women, the work is rarely finished. There is always one more decision, one more person who needs us, one more idea we are trying to bring to life.
So we keep going.
We become so accustomed to functioning while depleted that exhaustion begins to feel normal.
It took an island-wide power outage to interrupt me long enough to recognize that my body needed more than a few hours away from my laptop. It needed permission to stop.
Perhaps you do not need to wait for the power to go out.
Perhaps there is something your body has already been trying to tell you.
Before you move into the demands of another week, I want to invite you to ask yourself:
What would I notice if I became still long enough to listen?
Not what needs to be completed.
Not who is waiting for you.
Not what might fall apart if you step away.
What do you need?
The work will still be there.
But you deserve to return to it with some of your own power restored.
With care,
Nicole
Dr. Nicole R. Robinson
Founder, Vision + Impact
Come Sit With Us in The Circle™
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