Reading self-help and attending counseling for a lifetime can start to feel like abuse-of-self after awhile. With each new book I crack, my body asks, “When are we going to be okay the way we are? Why are we never enough? Why is it that we have to change?”
I thank god for the privilege I’ve had to self-help books and counseling throughout my lifetime, even when I was poor and on welfare.
But, excessive reading and searching for something outside our own inner knowing only reinforces our less-than opinions that others have liberally applied to us, and not always in childhood.
So, I chose to read for pleasure. On a pool day.
Self-help and growth as a human is wonderful, but it should also involve play and coming up for air from time to time. Constantly rolling in the deep, and diving deeper and deeper with little rest doesn’t make us stronger, faster. It can weaken us and take us under, drowning us.
Some myths about a water drowning:
*Drowning people yell for help.
*Drowning people wave and thrash about wildly like in the movies.
*A drowning person is capable to assist in their rescue.
*Drowning takes a while.
These are also fitting signs for other types of drowning.
— Drowning in trauma we rarely talk about.
— Drowning in self-doubt, we’re embarrassed to bring attention to.
— Drowning in grief that society expects us to “get over already.”
— Drowning in fatigue from a lifetime of trying.
Trying is good. But, excessive trying can make us weaker, sicker, and can take us down faster. ILL health is the result.
So, on days your body is asking you, “When are we going to be enough?”
Say, “Today, sweetheart, today.”
Float. Find pleasure. Play.
It’s all part of the process of becoming.
Robin Donnelly 