Mid-week
Its been a cray-cray two weeks. As norm returns I pick up on the things I haven’t gotten to completing. Isn’t it funny how we decide what we deprioritise. In a mentoring session we were discussing exactly this. How we deprioritise our own needs when we start to get exceptionally busy and ensure that everything else that needs our attention gets our energy.
It reminds me of levers that we pull. It’s not about being ON or OFF, but rather a fluctuation of levels that are required.
There are a number of reasons for ignoring our own needs. First of all, women are influenced by their family and the society in which they grow up and live, and are often trained by these influences to look after everyone else first. This can result in a sense of wanting to please others most of the time and to be of service.
People pleasing can also arise out of our response to there being many demands on us, or experiences of trauma, and the stress response that results. This is why we often struggle to say ‘no’ to demands. What can then result is taking on too many tasks and becoming exhausted, and it can mean not including enough time-out in the week.
At the centre of women not prioritising themselves can be a sense of having less importance than, or being inferior to, others. Humans make sense of the world by creating stories in our minds. Unfortunately, a ‘not being enough’ story about ourselves, can develop as we go through life.
So what do we do about putting ourselves up the priority list?
