Mental Health Mondays #17: Aphorisms for Happiness
A conversation with bestselling author Gretchen Rubin
New York Times bestselling author
has written so many books that have helped me personally. Her latest book, the Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives is a compilation of aphorisms that help to give the reader deep insights on life and how to actually strive towards happiness.Within the first few pages of the book my favorite aphorism appears:
“Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.”
For me, this aphorism hit so close to home and I’ve talked about the fact that for basically two decades I’ve worked myself to the bone, never satisfied by any achievement, and always striving for more and more success so that I could be validated as worthy by external sources.
I’m no longer about that life because what I’ve learned is that none of those accolades or that external validation filled the hold I felt within myself that I was inherently unworthy. I just never felt good enough, thin enough, smart enough, or successful enough to get all of the things I desired in life professionally or personally.
That all changed watching my mother die close up. I realized that so many of the things I watched her struggle with during her short life were repeating patterns in my own life, and I was being given an opportunity to do something different. That was her gift to me and to my sister. Right now, I work and put my all into my mission to be a vessel for truth in a moment where American democracy is being systematically dismantled before our very eyes. When I’m not working, I’m intentionally making space to feel joy, rest, decompress, and have a little fun.
My work is no longer my life. My worthiness to receive affection, love, and praise is no longer only sourced from my accomplishments or even how I look on the outside, they are something that I deserve because I am a human being who is alive. And the same is true for you, too.
Check out a small portion of the recent conversation I had with Gretchen Rubin below and let me know in the comments the ways in which you are being intentional in your life right now trying to strive for a happier life every day.
Source SiriusXM Progress Channel 127