Busyness Business
I have been on a "break" for almost 9 months now (by break I mean not in school and not working). I have to admit at first it was very unsettling. From waking up at 5am every day to work on my thesis project until midnight to suddenly nothing. Well not nothing, but this is a crisis affecting our generation. We have become obsessed with being busy all the time. We moan about it, brag about it, feel guilty when we aren’t. Everyone generally feels the need to live life at a million miles an hour, fueled by a Starbucks Latte and a to-do list so long that it rivals the Great Wall.
It's embedded in my brain to feel as though I need to be busy all the time. Maybe it's in my blood having spent so much of my life in busy cities. We’re all guilty of it; I remember spending weeks complaining about my all-nighters. It was expected and even competed on who could brag about the most hours they had been up. You know what I learned? It's not worth it and not sleeping is nothing to be proud of.
Sometimes we really are just busy with work and school. I see my sister-in-law working hard in law school, my husband bringing office work home on the weekends. Other times we tell ourselves 'that's life' as a way to excuse the stress we put on ourselves. My mother-in-law can't stop to take a break. If she's not cooking, she's cleaning. If she's not cleaning, she's doing laundry or buying groceries or reorganizing the furniture. It has come to a point where most of us are thinking if we’re not doing something productive or instagramable, was there any point in even getting out of bed today?
Our generation gets bored easily, new songs get old within a week, information is updated in seconds (imagine waiting for AT&T dial-up connection) and relaxing is associated with wasting time. On top of that, we compare ourselves to so-and-so on social media who “Got sh*t done today!!! 🙌🏼😏” and the cycle to "always want to grind" continues. Don't get me wrong, I love to be busy, to make to-do lists and work towards goals. I'm not suggesting we quit our jobs and spend our days lounging by the pool (but how amazing does that sound). I just think we need to balance. We need to learn that a day at the beach or anything pertaining to self-care and wellness can count as productive. It's not worth getting stressed and overwhelmed just because we're not we're sleep-deprived. Or constantly creating unattainable to-do lists and in result beat ourselves up when we can't finish it.
Yes, we are busy! The reality is that it is impossible to be busy all the time, and beyond that it's unhealthy to stress over it. It took me a long time to learn what my mom kept trying to teach me. That I’d be damn more productive if I took the time to breathe, to sleep a reasonable amount of hours, to squeeze in time for something I actually want to do. Whether that's see a friend or cancel all plans and take a nap.
If you constantly make to-do lists, like I do, schedule yourself some time to chill the F out and enjoy the long weekend.
Wearing: All Saints Sweater | Zara Overcoat
It's technically supposed to be spring now, but it seems winter wants to stay a while. Today’s edition of Casual Thursday (since tomorrow is Good Friday) is all about the basics of off-white. Finding a great wool cardigan doesn’t come too easy for everyone, but I’m telling you it's possible. I got mine from Zara on sale. There really is something for everyone there, and I especially love edgy basics. But the real star of this outfit is the All-Saints sweater with its asymmetrical lengths. Shop the post below: