The Weight of the World

The Blurt Foundation has written a great piece this week that talks about how in this fast paced busy world we, can forget how important it is to rest. Life can sometimes expand in such a way that we find ourselves carrying the weight of the world; being responsible for more, doing more and dealing with more than we were.

When we momentarily carry those additional burdens, it can make us stronger and build resilience in the same way weight training with a 10kg weight can make our muscles stronger over time. But that 10kg? We wouldn’t be able to carry it 24/7 without harming ourselves in, in some way. The same can absolutely be said for the extra burdens we’re having to carry – it’s unreasonable for us, or anyone else, to think we can do so alone for a long period of time without something giving.

Going back to this 10kg weight. The bit that enables us to pick it back up again is a rest and a reprieve – so much good repair work is done in the resting, in the stopping, in the not keeping on. Sometimes life throws so much additional stuff at us that we feel the best way to get through it is to put our heads down and keep on keeping on. But something will always have to give, and that can’t be you. It just can’t.

Your rest and your reprieve from the weight of the world need to be comparable to or exceed, the burdens you’re carrying. And for a lot of us right now, the burdens we’re carrying are taking their toll. We’re knackered, having sleep difficulties, worried, are aching, have given too much of ourselves and something is giving.

It always feels counter-intuitive to rest when life isn’t letting up. That instinct to keep on keeping on, to just get through, is a fierce and overpowering one and a symptom of the society were in which favours productivity and our usefulness over who we are and how we are. But the world doesn’t stop turning because you stop. Things are pick-back-up-able, things are renegotiable, and things are fixable. But remember to fix your toll-taken-tired-and-done-in-self first. Because you are important and worthy.

Look after yourselves and each other.

Kim Fry
UKSA Welfare Officer