The Sunday Post #5
It's hard to take your own advice sometimes
Sunday 10th November | Issue #05
Whoops, an unintentional two-week holiday for Substack there. I’d love to tell you that I was indeed on holiday, but instead, I was bulldozing past my boundaries and burning the candle solidly at one end (that would be the work one, of course). I can preach until the cows come home about how important life balance is, taking things slowly, resting, and recovering. But, I really struggle to take my own advice, I’ll keep up for a while and then my boundaries collapse in and it’s a free-for-all at the Allie energy store.
I find it horrendously painful knowing how to do something right, but subliminally choosing to do the thing that makes my life harder, again and again. Learnt behaviours are hard to unlearn, it takes a lot of trial and error. Instead of continuing to beat myself with the same stick, I’ll get up, move forward and keep slowly edging towards a life in which I’m not in a constant state of sheer panic about being behind, wrong or, my favourite, both.
The thing is, when I’m so entirely focused on ‘finishing my to-do list’ a lot of my little joys become less ritualistic. I described my habit of reading every day as the last thing I was desperately clutching onto in the storm of my mind (poetic, I know) to my therapist last week. It’s truly the only thing I’ve found space for outside of work, and thank goodness I still held on to that. So much so, that I’ve actually met my reading goal for the year, which felt very improbable after my unimpressive attempts at reading over the summer. I managed to read a whole 37 books this year, which is wild considering in 2021 I read 4.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. I’ve penned a few posts, so I’m excited to once again board the train of balance. ‘Tis the season for a bit of self-compassion, right?
Also, I’ve eaten many mince pies already, I might not be fully ready for full-blown Christmas but I’m happy to have the delightful pastry joys back in my life.
This week in links:
My go-to watches involve stress and horror, especially when I’m feeling stressed in my life. I once joked that you can tell how bad of a week I’ve had, by how many zombie films I’ve watched in a week. So this article on why women are drawn to horror films was a very apt read.
I’ve fallen off the wagon of putting my phone down at a certain time recently, but this post on no phone Sundays has me tempted.
Plum & Ashby are my go-to winter candles, their new scent has gone straight into my basket: Fir Balsam & Winter Berries.
I’m eagerly awaiting the next seed drop from Alma | Proust, they have some of the most beautiful Cosmos I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
Why do all your socks get holes at the same time? I’m very fussy about socks and am really drawn to investing in some of these.
Entertaining things:
Read: I’ve read a lot of books since we last spoke (you can see here if you’re also on Fable) but, I finished Briefly a Delicious Life by Nell Stevens * this week. It’s not often I feel I can genuinely describe a book as unique, but this one was. Historical fiction is a genre I’m new to, but damn. I’ll be reading more.
Watch: My favourite, Shrinking, is back. Honestly, I’m not a light-comedy person at all, but if you combine it with being hit straight in the feels, I’m there. I really love this program, the cast, the themes, Harrison Ford. Ergh, it has everything.
Watch: I’m not sure how it took me a decade but I finally watched Wild. Omg, I slept on this film. It’s so good, Reese Witherspoon is so good. It made me emotional and like I want to go on a really long walk.
One last thing:
Not following your own advice can really make you feel like a failure. But we’re all a combination of our good parts and our flaws. Just because you struggle to do something, even when you know it will be good for you, it doesn’t mean your advice is bad. I’m going to keep trying to take my advice to find boundaries because I know it’s worthwhile in the long run.
Hopefully, you enjoyed this post, if you did it would mean the world if you could share or restack it. Thank you!
Have a lovely Sunday, Allie ☁️
I’ve marked affiliate links with a * throughout this article, if you purchase through this link I will earn a small commission on the sale.
Taking a break or time for yourself is so important! It took me a chronic illness diagnosis to lean into that, haha. Need to find you on Fable – the design is so beautiful that I'm determined to make it stick for me.