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Do you often pay attention to the needs of others but neglect your own?

Do you feel you have to frequently remind others what needs to be done and get annoyed by them not getting things done the way you want or think? 

Or do you say “yes” to most things you’re asked to do but then feel resentful because you wanted to say no? And, if something goes wrong, do you feel the entire weight of that outcome even if you were not carrying the work alone? 

If you said yes to one or more of these questions, you might have a negative relationship with an overactive sense of responsibility and not enough accountability to yourself first.

Stop being so hard on yourself, that is not what you need to be great. You do not have to carry the world on your shoulders, and learning to love and manage yourself may help those feelings of over-responsibility subside.

What you need is to simply be – but first, you need to let go.

In most areas of our lives, we’re expected to work hard, do our best, and show up to reach our full potential. Usually, this pressure is good for us in many ways, but it can also teach us to be extremely hard on ourselves.

While it can be easier to focus on the well-being of others around you, forgetting how to be gentle with yourself comes at a cost.

Without the pouring of care back into yourself, you lose the benefits of self-love, self-forgiveness, and self-compassion.

If you go on too long without these, the efforts you make in your personal and professional spaces can become a weight that the emptiness within you can no longer carry.

Loving yourself well means knowing that you’re always worthy, even when you fail, even when you don’t feel good, even when you want to quit.

You don’t have to be anything but yourself in order to be good enough – this will always be the truth.

To overcome over-responsibility you could try some practical strategies to find a more appropriate balance of responsibility for better self-first care.

Examine your assumptions

Do you really have to do everything yourself, or could you share the load or delegate better at home or work?

Give responsibilities back

If it is not yours to do, don’t. There is no glory in self-sacrifice and we do no favours for the growth of others if we don’t let them carry their portion

Define what is truly yours

Make a list of To-do items and ask others around you to do the same. Next, you can compare to see if the work (whether at home or at the office) is being fairly distributed – teamwork works!

Accept help

This should be a priority. By accepting help from others you allow them to experience the same positive feelings you enjoy from helping others – share the load.

Lastly, be patient. Practising new ways to re-parent yourself is a process. As long as you remember that you are kind, caring, and capable you’ll always have the right attitude towards yourself, and you should because you are great!

#SpiralAloeHealth #LifestyleIsTheMedicine #Mindfulness #Compassion #SelfCare #StressManagement #LifestyleManagement #Responsibility #Psychology #Wellbeing