If you are a busy bee, where does this come from?
- Perfectionism – What are the fears and painful past experiences that drive you toward perfectionism? While wanting to create good work, informed work is important, perfectionism often shows up with a great deal of anxiety, shame, and doubts about self-worth.
- Productivity – We seek purpose and meaning as human beings. Unfortunately, we often equate purpose with productivity, when in fact productivity under capitalist societies do not respect the worth of a human and is never satisfied with what you can realistically offer. How else could you seek and build meaning in life?
- Sense of Self – Who are you when you aren’t working? Who could you be? How else could you describe yourself and what could your life look like if work weren’t your entire life?
- Avoidance – Avoidance of painful memories and experiences is normal human behavior, but is avoidance taking away from you much more than it is giving you? If so, what do you need to tackle avoidance so that you can truly embody your life?
If you truly enjoy your work and have a good work-life balance, none of these may apply to you, or they may still show up to a degree that you can tolerate. However, if you find that you are absent from yourself and/or your life, I encourage you to consider different ways to explore these issues.
I will discuss a few ways therapy can help in the next post, so stay tuned!