Giving Up: The Self-Care Hack No One Talks About

What is your relationship with giving up?

This week, I gave up something that was important to me—something I had set my mind on doing. More so than giving it up, I parked it and decided that I was not going to do it. Not now, not under these circumstances. And while it felt really good, my mind put up a fight.

The truth is, I could probably pull it off. I could allocate the insane amount of energy, time, resources, and favours it would require and make it happen. And that is a nice feeling to have.

I am not giving up because I don’t think I can make it or because I am scared to fail; I am giving up because, after facing the reality of what it would cost to achieve, I don’t think it is the right call. Not at the moment.

I always have to re-learn that the work of shedding and getting off the hamster wheel never really ends. Just when you think you’ve nailed it, old habits creep back—a capitalist urge to push you further, the good old guilt, my long-time friend anxiety.

When I looked ahead to my year—all the things I want to do, and more importantly, how I want to do them—I realised something had to give. And that is okay. Denying reality won’t make it any less true.