Your Body Knows Exactly How It Feels... You Just Need To Listen

I recently had a conversation with a client of ours that basically resulted in the pair of us swapping stories about how hard we had worked ourselves for a month long period, to both come out the other end depleted, sick and exhausted.

10 years year ago, I would have worn that depleted, sick, exhausted badge with pride - it seemed to represent efficiency and productivity. However, this notion that we can keep "powering on" through our days to meet deadline after deadline is just societies productivity programming thinly veiled as efficiency. We become addicted to that feeling of "ticking things off" - it is, in itself, a quick dopamine hit, a clap on the back - that instant gratification we seem to thrive off in 2019.

I asked myself why I had put myself under such immense pressure that month just recently - why was I returning to old behaviours that really have no place in the way I want 2019 to "look". It was habitual. However, in those habits I came down with a flu, my body ached, I lost days (maybe even a week or two), and I can honestly say, I will go to all lengths to avoid feeling that way again. In reality, I know why I put myself under that pressure - we had a beautiful new brand to launch, exciting new skin tech innovations to talk about, and a website that seemingly needed my attention at all hours of the night. I was so proud of what we were creating at MO+ that I wanted to share it with agility... but in those moments, I forgot about my health.

My reason for writing this is simple - had I given myself a few more early nights, switched off my phone and decided that enough was enough for that day, would I have felt so... depleted, sick and exhausted? Probably not. Would I still have had our beautiful new brand and sparkling website? Yes, absolutely. Perhaps it would have rolled out a week later... it is here that we find a very simple intersection - one where we have to choose ourselves and our health.

I certainly indulged in an incredible lymphatic drainage massage, lay under our LED light and began, again, to put myself to bed at a reasonable hour, but my message is simple: listen closely to your body - it is telling you everything you need to know. Where the mind will often boggle and confuse, the body is at one - it knows when it needs to slow down, relax and recuperate. You just need to listen more closely.

Barbara,

Founder, MO+