Louis Michael: Importance of treating yourself

We live in such a non-stop world, where one to-do list is followed by another, the notifications on our phone never stop buzzing, and rushing around like a headless chicken is the norm. So unfortunately not only is taking a break hard, in some dystopian capitalistic twist it’s also strangely frowned upon.
In different subtle ways it is inferred that taking time for yourself is selfish, and taking time specifically do not do anything at all is lazy. Rather than understanding that work and play are two aspects of a vitally important balance this harsh capitalistic society holds ‘play’ ransom under the conditions that you cooperate with an ever increasing demand of work.

If we aren’t being productive then we aren’t being proper members of society. And if we aren’t contributing to society then where are we supposed to derive our self worth from?

Rather than exercise a healthy attitude towards our own mental and physical health we are instead encouraged to work ourselves to the bone under the cultural mantras of ‘hard work pays off’ and ‘early bird catches the worm’ and ‘nothing worth having is free’.

We submit to the relentless whip of life as an unavoidable aspect of existence and acquiesce to this expectation of non-stop work. But if you step out of that mindset for even a minute you’ll be able to see how insane and ludicrous it is for us to be expected to spend 5/7ths of the precious time we have on this planet, wasting our divine abilities of imagination and creative expression, chained to a job that gives us no satisfaction and no stimulation. At the risk of sounding like an insubstantial cliché, we are too busy keeping our heads above water to enjoy the ocean.

Treating yourself isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. We are not meant to live lives full of work and stress and crushing responsibility. We are supposed to be happy and free to create and imagine, that’s real life. When you treat yourself you’re finding your way back to what was truly intended.