The stress of good things
How to be okay with the stress that comes with the good things in life.
Candice is on the Gold Coast with her family this week and Lauren and her son spent a couple of days with them which was lovely!
Candice was feeling really overwhelmed last week getting organised for the holiday. Packing for holidays with young kids is a LOT of work and planning.
And even now that they are on the holiday, there will be lots of tricky times with the kids being out of their usual routine and being all squished together in a hotel room for a week.
Part of the toxic positivity messages we’re all exposed to in our society is that when we experience good things in life we think we should only experience pure joy, excitement and gratitude.
But the reality is good things, even the good things that we really want, can be stressful. They can bring significant work, adjustment, uncertainty, and sometimes significant financial investment.
Of course, Candice is happy and grateful to be on the holiday but two things can be true. She can be grateful about the lovely parts AND stressed about the stressful parts.
So instead of giving ourselves a hard time when we feel tricky emotions about the good things we want and choose in our life, we can remind ourselves that all emotions are okay, that it’s okay to have a combination of emotions, and that good things have tricky parts too.
Knowing that good things can be stressful too can go a long way as an act of self-love.
