The capitalist culture will have us believe that we should work hard, push hard and continue to produce without paying attention to our capacity.
I have been doing a lot of work healing my nervous system from years of pushing myself to produce. As the voices of ‘not good enough,’ and the fear of self-criticism is losing their hold on me, I am paying attention to my capacity and how much I can do to create success in my business while honouring my need for rest and nourishment.
I have worked with many women business owners over the years. While they were able to create success to an extent. They feared taking on more because they didn’t think they had enough time. They feared if they were working so hard already if they made more money, they will have to work even harder.
A lot of the time, it wasn’t true. We were able to package their services. We also clarified their message. We streamlined their work and they were able to make more money without working harder.
If we look at wealthy people, they don’t actually work hard. They have people at the bottom who work for them. No wonder we feel trapped by the systems of power and unfair distribution of wealth and are convinced we will never be able to reach our potential.
While I agree it can be hard to get a business off the ground, I am also convinced if we pay attention to our capacity, we can be more productive.
In my new line of work, I am encouraging my clients to pay attention to their bodies, and their capacity and be willing to stretch and ask for help.
Having the right strategy in business isn’t enough. Managing our energy, and paying attention to our capacity and our nervous system’s ability to handle the workload is very important.
We need to be aware if we are in one of our trauma responses when we are working. As soon as we are in a fight, flight, or freeze trauma response, it is a sign that we have worked passed our window of tolerance and we need to slow down and bring ourselves back to balance before taking action again.
We fear if we rest we will become lazy and will not accomplish anything. It really isn’t true. In fact, we are easily able to come back to our natural rhythms, if we give our bodies a chance to recover.
