Releasing The Pressure | A Softer Path To Motivation

Feel like you're always under pressure to do more or be better? In this episode, I break down how to release the pressure you’re putting on yourself and step into a greater sense of ease and peace. You’ll learn how to reconnect with your intuition, motivation, and worthiness from a place of flow, not force.

If you'd like to connect more with me, please check out the Wild Free Well Space here on Insight Timer, where you'll find support, journal prompts, and a space to submit topics for upcoming episodes!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Wild Freewell podcast.

Today I am here to talk to you about pressure and more specifically I am here to talk to you about releasing the pressure that you put on yourself.

So this could be about any area of your life and while you're listening to this I would encourage you to think about the area that you're wanting to focus on because it's important and I'm going to take you through some steps but the main idea here is really that you think about whatever is kind of troubling you or any area of your life where you feel like you are moving upstream,

Forcing,

Striving,

Pushing,

Stressing,

Feeling overwhelmed or putting a massive amount of pressure on yourself to you know be a certain way or move a certain way or whatever it might be.

So before we begin think about that area,

Bring it to mind,

Area,

Situation,

Whatever it might be and then keep that kind of front in mind as I go through today's episode.

Okay so here's how I see things.

Basically you have two options when you're feeling pressured,

Under pressure,

When you're feeling like you're striving or kind of forcing something to happen or whatever right,

You have two options.

You can either do something about it,

So what I mean by that is like you know objectively check something off your to-do list so that the pressure feels less real and you feel more realized or you feel more relaxed or like you can kind of pat yourself on the back for a job well done,

Whatever it might be.

Or you can give yourself permission to release the pressure because you don't need to carry it in the first place.

So obviously one of these is easier than the other.

I mean we get a sense there's a reason why to-do lists are so popular,

There's the reason why they're like one of the most popular apps for like our phones and stuff like that because we love as humans a good checklist.

We love being able to like scratch that thing off and I mean me too it's not I'm not above or exempt from this conversation at all but yeah we really love checking something off and we get a sense of,

Pardon me,

We get a sense of completion from it,

We get a sense of satisfaction from it.

It's very much like patting yourself on the back for a job well done like you did it yay and there is nothing wrong with that.

However you don't necessarily need that to feel better.

So what I mean by that is yes you can do something or you can just release the emotion that's causing you trouble in the first place.

In this case we're talking about pressure.

So yeah you don't actually need pressure to be productive.

You don't actually need to strive or to force to get things done because you are a bright and capable human being without any of the added pressure right like all of that is true regardless of the situation that you're finding yourself in regardless of how you're feeling about it.

It is objectively true that you are bright and you are capable and the pressure is something that exists externally to that.

So if we keep on this way the pressure is probably most likely not actually serving you.

So there is a theory or a school of thought that I obviously don't agree with that expresses that you know like pressure helps make you more productive and like there's a lot of clients that come to me over the time and they say like well I can't stop criticizing myself,

I can't stop putting pressure on myself because then I'll never get anything done.

But what actually is true is that pressure and stress tends to lead to overwhelm which tends to lead to a certain amount of shutting down which tends to lead to procrastination right.

That's kind of the general line this is not always true of course nothing is always true but this tends to be the way things go.

I would also argue that it is not true that pressure is what makes someone inherently productive or motivated okay and a lot of people again believe this like you know I put pressure on myself because if I don't I'm just not going to get anything done.

That's not true that is just simply simply simply false.

I'm sorry while it may be true that you have been living this story it is in fact just the you know millionth story that we tell ourselves but there is nothing about this that is objectively true.

What I mean by that is that when we think about motivation or we think about productivity and when you are truly embodying that space it actually feels like ease and flow.

If you're genuinely motivated to do something if you're genuinely in a space of motivation then it feels like you know you're just kind of going with the flow and like everything's kind of working out and things are just falling into place.

Pressure is the opposite of that right.

It does not the two I do not feel like are I don't feel like they're compatible I don't feel like they're similar either.

So let's break down for a second what pressure is.

If you think about how you're currently putting pressure on yourself again go back to that area and you know the ways in which you're kind of forcing an outcome whatever you had thought about at the beginning of the of the podcast.

I'd like you to get still for a second take a really nice long deep breath I'm actually going to do it with you so breathe in and breathe out slowly through the mouth let the shoulders fall down okay we've done that and now I want you to ask yourself this question why why are you putting pressure on yourself?

So what I mean by that is what do you feel this situation this area of your life this whatever it might be says or means about you.

So whatever it might be the pressure that you're putting on yourself to behave or to move in a different way is being fueled by an emotional desire for something else.

So maybe you're putting pressure on yourself because you want to feel productive or accomplished or like you're achieving your goals that's potentially true but I would argue that if you took that a step further and you dove a little deeper and you asked why those things were important in the first place why the productivity the feeling accomplished the achieving of the goals was important there would be another layer to that.

So perhaps the root of all of this becomes you know I want to feel peace or I want to feel acceptance or love or worthiness whatever it might be.

So it's almost this idea of like well if I'm productive enough you know or if I do just all of the things like I do everything right or if I just behave perfectly enough or whatever then somehow you know I'll be more worthy and so obviously I'm here to call BS on that and I have to say that of course none of that is objectively true.

So your worth despite the culture that we live in and I am not going to go on my millionth rant about capitalism but despite the fact that we live in this culture where productivity is equated to worthiness okay and you are more worthy if you work more work harder burn yourself out you know work yourself into the ground and whatever this is something that seems to be really valued by the system in which we find ourselves in despite all of that okay no amount of productivity will alter your inherent worth because you are worthy because you are full stop.

There is nothing that you can or need to do in order for you to earn your worthiness right so and we all get tripped up by this like this is not I'm not judging there is no like shade in all of this I've been here you've been here we've all been here we shall be here again we will get over this for a time being we will learn we will improve and then we will end up back here again that's life and that's fine but like there is no reality where you know if you just do all of the right things that then you will be more worthy your worthiness is as inherent as your breathing it really is that simple though it's not always easy to take that on board right but the pressure that you're putting on yourself to do be or perform in a specific way is your mind's way of making you feel worthy of something again love maybe rest that's a really common one you know I'll rest when I'm dead oh I hate that but that's like something that we say in society or like you know I'll rest when I finish doing xyz or maybe it's peace that you're after it really doesn't matter what it is there is something there is an emotional root here that you need to I mean you don't need to you don't need to do anything but that it you it would be well worth you taking the time to figure out what it is because then if you can get clear on what it is that you're chasing after through this pressure through the striving the forcing the stress and trying to be more productive whatever you're trying to find there if you can figure out what it is you can find alternative ways of getting to the same place right but you are worthy inherently and regardless of what you do or don't do and I want to talk now not about pressure but about true motivation right when we are really motivated and when we're in flow and feeling good right motivation is something that is so easy it just happens productivity productivity then becomes a natural byproduct of this experience there's really nothing extra that you need to do and forcing doesn't even really come to mind in these cases because it's all just flowing smoothly so like can you imagine for a second if you were able to just ride this wave of life more often like you were just able to be in flow and be authentically motivated without the pressure and the punishing yourself to try to do more and part of this starts with this idea like of sorry of not giving into this idea that you have to do something specific or different or force yourself to show up in a specific way you can apply this to any area of your life any area at all most recently I think I would apply this to my it's something of like a mix between health and productivity so what I mean by that is you know my house needs to be cleaned feeling a little bit under the weather there's stuff that needs to get done for work and I'm not feeling particularly drawn to any of it and at the time when when this was kind of unfolding I think I wasn't necessarily hearing my intuition either in in part that was because I feel like I was not necessarily in a space of being open and receptive to hearing that because I was filling myself up with other things whether that was television or it was like games on my phone you know I've talked about that or just like distractions in general right so I wasn't necessarily giving time for this message to come through and then I stopped and I began to kind of journal and talk to myself and then all of a sudden things became a lot clearer because I was giving myself the space to just kind of be and unfold and I wasn't distracting myself but I also wasn't forcing myself to do the things that like I feel I quote-unquote need to do okay and in these moments it really is so important and so powerful as well to like lean into your intuition and your innate knowing and honestly probably get really quiet and actually listen to what your body your mind your heart and your spirit are actually telling you because they're always communicating to you and then from there taking action on what is being communicated to you because that's where you begin living in alignment with your values and your highest self right if you're listening to your intuition your intuition is never going to lead you astray that is not how that works I think it is the reason why we are most often protected by things sorry from things but it's never going to lead you someplace that you are not meant to be and it's always going to help keep you moving in a way in the way that you were meant to move in this world the way that you were designed to move the way that you are you've been created by the universe to move right like if you are able to really live in alignment with your values and really get clear on what it is that you know is important to you and then really listen to the inner guidance that comes through then that is where you are that's the point of power for you right because if you can accept this way of living you become ever more aligned and you tap into this deeper and I would also argue higher knowing of what is inherently right for you because you are listening to a mixture of what you know to be true here on earth and the kind of spiritual side of you that is being guided by something bigger and this power really you know it moves through you but it fuels you as you move forward and honestly that is my deepest wish for you I hope that everyone that listens to this podcast really understands that the more that you know yourself the more that you are aligned with your values with your vibe with the things that are important to you the more that you are practicing taking action on your intuition and I mean really listening really really listening to what is being communicated to you because you are always being communicated to even when you feel like you aren't and then taking action on that that is going to get you I think closer faster to what you actually want whatever it is that you're desiring is on the other side of this really knowing who you are and then listening for the guidance that propels you forward and taking action on those things right it's not enough to listen we actually have to do something then on the other side of that of course but still and this combination I think is what leads us to the most fulfilling version of our lives humanly possible because when we're aligned with ourselves and the things that we were you know maybe put on earth to learn or the things that we value we are so much better positioned to actually go after what we want and to not be swayed from what we want so there's no external story or influence that's going to move us from what we're going after because we know who we are and we're aligned with that right so it's not about like sometimes we know something sometimes we feel something and then someone doesn't matter who or something you know a piece of information is delivered to us it really doesn't matter how it could be through media it could be through the radio or music or a movie or it could come through like someone in your life or it could come through someone that you don't really know maybe you hear something on the street and it makes you think there are things that perhaps sometimes question you the people who care about you the most tend to be the ones that sometimes put themselves in the path because they feel like they are protecting you but when you are aligned with yourself and you know who you are you're able to take action in such a powerful way and you're able to hear what other people say without embodying that or taking it on board and so even the external pressure right again which is what we're all talking about what we're talking about today so even though we know that we live in this system and we know that productivity is incessantly you know is incredibly valued in this in this iteration of this system we can know that and we can still do the self-honoring things we can still release the pressure to be ultra productive when we're not in a state of flow and to do the things that move us back into a sense of state of flow right that's the whole point this is not an argument against productivity this is an argument the millionth again argument against productivity for the sake of productivity or anything for the sake of that thing that is not a reason in my humble opinion to do anything okay so I want you to be productive I want you to be happy I want you to be filled and and to go after what you want but I don't want you to run yourself into the ground in order to do it and I don't want you to be moving from a space of feeling pressured in order to get there because I feel like when you do get there there's not going to be this joy or sense of completion because there was no joy in completion along the journey so just allowing yourself to really be who you are and again this is a call for self-acceptance as always every episode essentially is a call for self-acceptance and really releasing the stories that don't serve you releasing the external ideas that are not yours and allowing yourself to truly just be who you are and love yourself the way you are in whatever situation you find yourself in as you move lovingly kindly towards what you want and this is where I leave you I hope this episode was useful I hope that you got something good out of it I would love to connect with you more I do have a group on insight timer if that's something that you'd be interested in there's journal prompts there's conversations we're you know we're getting diving deeper into all of these kinds of topics you're able to submit topics for the podcast that you want covered and just genuinely ask me anything so I would love to hear from you if you want to find that space it's called the wild free well space on insight timer and yeah I just look forward to connecting with you and again comments critiques concerns questions all of that jazz reach out to me I'm happy to hear from you and otherwise I will see you on the next episode of the podcast have a great weekend ciao