Affirmations to Heal From Toxic Productivity

Source: @oaknarrow

So the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing. While our culture has glorified and worshipped productivity, we have gone to an extreme where productivity is not only bad for our physical and mental wellbeing, but is actually preventing us from reaching our career and financial goals. Our consumerist society already sets us up for problems with an out-of-balanced emphasis on productivity, but add on a global pandemic that blurred the lines of work and home life, and the past few generations where women have been told to work harder than men to “prove their worth” and “earn their spot” to beat the patriarchy (but still make less than men), and you have a society dripping so heavily in toxic productivity we can’t even see it.

I couldn’t see it for years, and am still working on healing from it. Especially as a business owner, I felt like I didn’t deserve success unless I had to spend all or most of my free time working, called myself lazy if I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to, and felt so guilty when doing something “meaningless” like watching TV or reading. I thought I needed client sessions to fill my time, and felt lazy or unaccomplished if I spent any free time on the weekdays on anything that wasn’t “productive.” Oh, how I am relieved to have seen the light. Since realizing my toxic productivity and working to heal, I became healthier, got way more energy, transformed my happiness, but I also made double the money with less effort, and saw so many more opportunities come to me instead of chasing them down. Here’s how to know if you’re suffering from toxic productivity and affirmations that can help you heal.

What is “Toxic Productivity”

Toxic productivity is the feeling of always needing to do something, and never feeling like you’re doing enough. Maybe you feel like you can’t do anything that’s not productive, so you have guilt whenever you’re watching TV, scrolling through your phone, or even when you’re out with friends. Maybe your time relaxing on the couch or out with friends is often spent thinking about the to-do list you have to get to when you’re done. You believe that every single one of your waking moments should be used for some sort of meaningful action or result, and always feel like you’re falling short of your goals while still experiencing burnout. Maybe you even focus more on what you haven’t done (in your day or in your life) than what you have already accomplished. PSA: No, you’re not lazy–you’re a normal human being needs a balance of rest, off-time, sleep, fulfilling relationships, and work.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying getting things done and loving to work (AKA why “productivity” is a good thing). But where it becomes extremely harmful is when it feels like an addiction–AKA you prioritize productivity over genuine fulfillment of life and you don’t have a balance. When you’re warped in toxic productivity, it naturally wrecks havoc on your mental and physical health, but it’s also causing you to completely forego your feminine energy (which leads to an imbalances in energies, hormones, the gut, etc.) and you’re also manifesting a life of lack because you’re an energetic match for hard work, suffering, anxieties, and busyness–not an energetic match for abundance and happiness. You will feel like you are constantly treading water in your career life when you’re experiencing toxic productivity, instead of going with the natural flow you are meant to that attracts wealth, abundance, and success to you.

Affirmations to Help You Heal:

• My worth is not determined by what I do; I am worthy of existence because I am alive

• My only purpose on earth is the same as flowers; to simply exist, be unique, and be beautiful.

• Who I am and what I believe attracts success to me, not time or effort.

• Even if I do nothing today, I am an energetic match to receive abundance.

• Rest and joy are the most productive ways I could spend my time because they help me gain clarity, creativity, abundance, and energy

• The majority of my life is meant to be spent in stillness

• The purpose of life is to enjoy it–purpose is a feeling, not an action.

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