Give yourself a break by recognising who you really are

giveyourselfabreak

Sometimes I look around and think what a strange story most of us live in.

Asking for a flat white with powdered chocolate sprinkled on the top.

Oh, and what’s the wifi password?

Say again? Seven Oh Oh Nine Hashtag Four Underscore Nine?

Got it. Thanks.

Shuffle to laptop and stare at some illuminated pixels pumped through to your machine via a million data points.

Yes, we are here, and yes we must do our best to be modern-day humans.

We need to make money. We need to do our taxes. We need to think of clever ways to entice other humans to hand over money for our clever offerings.

Sometimes it works, and we feel the thrill of having figured out life.

And other times our experiments fail.

Things didn’t work out the way we wanted them to.

They didn’t engage with our video.

They didn’t want to buy that video course I made.

And we feel the sting of reality out of alignment with our hopes.

— -

Sometimes it’s best to take a step back and breath.

Here’s the truth:

You and I are meant to do nothing more than survive in nature.

We are here to share the enjoyment of the sun setting behind the trees having lived another day.

We are here to tell each other stories of our trials in the forest in the bracing cold around a smoking fire.​​

And all this extra stuff?

The Expressos, the Internet Marketing; urban scooters; Instagram; the gas bills and face masks.

They are all just that. Extra stuff.

It’s part of the game.

None of it needs to be taken seriously.

(Ok, maybe except the face-masks).

So if you find yourself up against a challenge that hurts, just remember: Not one of us knows what the hell we’re doing.

We’re all strangers to this, living ten thousand years ahead of our time.

Give yourself a break.

Do the best you can with one thing at a time.

When you can let go of trying to control everything, you will be more creative.

When you can let go of thinking you need to ‘have your shit together,’ you will be more resourceful.

That’s how you win the game.

— —

Alex Mathers

Writer, coach, illustrator and nomad - http://alexmathers.net. Writer of 5 books; 150k online readers.

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