A handful of insights, gathered from various sources, about productivity, rest, and self-worth. Photo by Kyle Collins on Pexels 1. Permission to start at zero. I’ve been listening to a series of short talks called “Time Management for Mortals”, delivered by Oliver Burkeman, who wrote a book on the same topic, on the Waking Up … Continue reading Nothing is enough.
Tag: self-care
Burnout and the art of not taking oneself too personally
As a person who's prone to getting burned at work, I've come to realise that I'm often the one feeding the fire. It’s hard to take responsibility for burnout when our culture of glorified individualism and over-achievement has a lot to answer for, and when work-life boundaries get increasingly dissolved by technology, but we have to own anything we wish to change. And perhaps, while taking personal ownership for it, we can also take burnout less personally.
Self Care versus Self Compassion
What are the differences between self-care and self-compassion? There is a sense that the one is about behaviour and the other is about regard; hence, self-care is something we do, in the form of activities or rituals, while self-compassion (or perhaps more commonly referred to as self-love) is an attitude we have towards ourselves. In this post I explore the issues I have with some interpretations of self-care in the mainstream – how it has become monetised, used as yet another form of consumerism, and even become a way of avoiding responsibility for real self-nurturing and growth. But I’ve also been reminded that self-compassion is the conviction, the fundamental self-acceptance, that is necessary to enable self-care in the first place. After all, some days you’re too down to even self-sustain, let alone deem yourself worthy of looking after.
All & None of the Above 