Digital Burnout: The Dangers of Prioritizing Productivity over Mindfulness
4 Mindfulness Practices to Detach from the Hustle Mentality
Have you ever stopped to wonder why it seems to be so dam hard to unsubscribe from the hustle mentality?
Let alone how do you disavow a practice and risk standing out from the crowd when everyone around you is prioritizing productivity above all else.
Sound Familiar!
This is one of the many questions that can arise when you work to integrate mindfulness practice into your daily life. I would like to invite you to journey with me through this post, as we explore four ways in which you can use mindfulness practice to detach from the hustle mentality.
Mental Fatigue
Perhaps you find yourself overcome with pushing yourself to the very brink of exhaustion to get the work done. As mental and physical exhaustion rapidly begin to set in you suddenly find yourself overcome with sheer exhaustion. Not only is it increasingly hard to think let alone concentrate, suddenly you find yourself overcome with a wave of fatigue and sleepiness, which overwhelmingly, sends you into a cycle of persistent yarning, filling your eyes with tears, and blurring your vision and focus.
Despite your best efforts, your only recourse is to step away from the computer screen to seek refuge in the calm stillness, of your bed. Only much like a sleepy toddler whose nap schedule has fallen by the waist side, overwhelm and fatigue fills you as you reluctantly surrender and drift off to sleep.
To your surprise, you find yourself awakening in a spot that is so far off from the comforts of your bed that you find yourself in a compromising position that leaves you in bodily pain and discomfort. Dazed and confused, you quickly ready yourself to get up and go to bed making the best out of the few hours that are left in the night before you yet again have to get up and do it all over again. Suddenly an immense wave of judgment fills you, as feelings of guilt overwhelm you for not adhering to your needs.
The pressures of constantly aiming and striving, in what seems like a never-ending cycle of grinding, self-sacrifice, and judgment, is daunting. All in an effort to adhere to what we’ve been led to believe is the only pathway to success. This brings to mind a few widely known sayings that glorify self-sacrifice, team no sleep, work harder, and no days off. Only the harder you grind and hustle the more you feel disconnected from honoring your mind, body, and spirit. Regardless of whether you consciously ascribe to the hustle mentality or not, we have all embraced the hustle mentality in some way form or fashion.
From taking too few days off, working yourself to the bone, ignoring the body’s calls to rest, and pushing yourself to work in spite of feeling under the weather, it can seem like an exhausting cycle with no way out. Perhaps you may have also had similar experiences. Or just maybe you have struggled to resist feelings of guilt, as you work to prioritize your needs ahead of others. Much like the old saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty cup.
The Downside of #TeamNoSleep
The very notion and hashtags of #teamnosleep, and #hustleharder, highlight the push to prioritize productivity over intuitively listening, and responding to your body’s needs. Understanding what your body needs goes beyond, tuning into its subtle needs. Often times what starts off as a whisper can escalate into a tremendously loud cry placing your needs front and center. Suddenly what was initially a mere request, quickly transforms into a glaring demand accompanied by physical discomfort in the form of headaches, fatigue, and exhaustion.
Luckily with intention, these symptoms can quickly resolve. Essentially the body is an amazing technological machine, that possesses such instinctual actions, resilience, and functionality that its innately able to compensate for our inaction, in spite of ourselves. However, much like an engine that has been unduly deprived of its essential oil, gas, and timely maintenance, the body is susceptible to yield to the burden of neglect.
A Mindful Approach
Somewhere along the way productivity, and the hustle mentality have been rallied, celebrated, and prioritized over tuning in, listening, and complying with our inner guidance. In many ways, it almost seems as if we have sloughed off our intuitive faculty, subconsciously regulating it as insignificant. All the while, this very faculty innately connects us with our higher selves, leading and guiding us to act in a manner that aligns with our highest good. Only this couldn't be further from the truth, as everything first originates from within and flows into our outer experience. In other words, tuning in to our intuition connects our higher selves with our physical bodies.
Leaning into our intuitive faculty enables us to honor our mental, and physical health and well-being. In essence, when we will fully comply with the actions and practices that honor our wellbeing, it detaches us from a mentality that prioritizes productivity above all else. Regardless of whether we have conscious awareness or otherwise, rest or the lack thereof, has increasingly become associated with the connotation that it is a sign of weakness. However, beyond a mere privilege, rest is our birthright.
“Rest is not only resistance. It’s a movement.”
—The Nap Ministry
4 Ways to use Mindfulness to Detach from the Hustle Mentality
1. Tune-in
Each and every day there are people and things that persistently rally for our attention. Be it work, family, relationships, or obligations, it will always seem as if our awareness is better suited to anything else other than ourselves. Tuning in to what we experience within each moment, increases our self-awareness of what we need in each moment.
2. Self-Awareness
Prioritizing productivity over self-care can disrupt our well-being. Going within when we feel an intense urge to prioritize productivity over self-care, supports us to detach from habits that deny our innate needs.
3. Deep Listening
Listening goes beyond merely using our ears to hear. Our mind, body, and spirit, are always communicating with us. We just simply must tune in to what it’s calling for us to do. This message will likely come by way of our intuition as it guides us to our highest good. If a feeling arises that you must rest, do less, or designate time for yourself, listen.
“When your body speaks, listen. Even when it’s a whisper. Ask for clarity. It will repeat itself.
—Jasofmoon
4. Response
We are all constantly in communication with our higher selves as it guides us through each and every moment of our lives. When we receive a communication, it is up to us to respond in a way that honors our whole selves. By giving ourselves permission to prioritize our needs over everyone else, it supports us to remain harmoniously aligned with our bodies.