Day 147: The Pressure We Quietly Create for Ourselves

This morning is the first morning I’m starting to feel back to normal after being sick the last few days.

The weird thing is, something as small as a sniffle or sore throat can completely disrupt the flow of your daily life.



All of a sudden, the things on your calendar that felt so urgent, no longer are.

Instead you do the bare minimum and go to bed to get some rest.


And if you get really sick, everything else is out the window.



I remember having dengue fever back in 2019 and with a really high fever and sick in bed for 3 weeks, I was not on WhatsApp with clients all day long. I was lucky to have enough brain cells to check for important messages once a day.



And you know what, nobody cared that I wasn’t responding right away.



It only took a 2 word text.



I’m sick.



So, that begs the question, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to perform, achieve, take care of everyone else, and not take care of ourselves?



And why do we fill our calendars with all these must do’s that are fine not being done when we no longer can do them?



This morning I was reading in A Course in Miracles and read this:



“The question, “What do you want?” must be answered. 



You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. 



Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed.”



The last 4 days have been a good reminder that I push myself too hard. I don’t need to.

All will get done in the right time.



It’s good to have a fast every now and then.



I’ve never been a voluntary fasting person. I like to eat.



But it is a great reset. And it shows you how different things affect your body when you start to eat and drink again.



Nothing bad happened because things on my calendar got pushed.



Life continued. People adjusted. The world didn’t collapse because I rested.



My workers continued construction without my supervision.



So why can’t I slow down?



When life forces us to stop, we often discover how much of what felt urgent was internally created pressure.



Part of this is simply my nature. I’ve never been someone who just sits around doing nothing. If I wasn’t writing or doing videos, I’d be reading, remodeling, baking, or creating something else.



“What do you want?” becomes a profound question because our daily decisions are answering it constantly whether consciously or unconsciously.



Because if my daily decisions are creating exhaustion, overextension, pressure, and constant urgency, then I have to honestly ask myself if those decisions are truly aligned with what I say I want.



That means I have to reconsider and recalibrate what I’ve told myself I want and look at what it really is I want.



That’s not always an easy thing to just sit down and figure out.



That’s usually when I decide it’s time to do another round of Change One Thing, Change Your Life.



After 25 years, I still cycle through the 40 days at least a couple of times a year.



And speaking of that, the 25th anniversary edition will be available in the next few days. Of course, you’ll be the first to know.




Today’s Gentle Practice

Notice today if there is an area of your life where you are creating pressure, urgency, or emotional heaviness around something that may not actually require it.

A responsibility.
A timeline.
A habit of overextending yourself.
A belief that everything depends on you.

Then gently ask yourself:

“What would happen if I softened my grip here a little?”

Not avoidance.
Not giving up.


Just less internal pressure.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much energy we’re spending holding ourselves in a constant state of urgency until life forces us to stop long enough to notice it.



With you,

Lynn