Way back in the third instalment, What Are The Other Animals that We Can Be, I talked about how we can sometimes push ourselves into unnecessary uncomfortable situations. This can be because we are inpatient for change and we want to prove ourselves to others as well as ourselves but on reflection, I want to add because we want to do the right thing by everyone.

What inspired me to write about this was an episode of The Vicar of Dibley where Geraldine accepts four invitations for Christmas lunch on the same day because she did not want to let anyone of her hosts down. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Geraldine understandably ends up feeling really sick. This made me realise that although you want to do the best you can to help people, putting that amount of pressure on yourself to please everyone only brings negative side effects upon ourselves.

Although, I would also say that if you have the right precautions in place, you can manage a bit more challenge. Some examples of this that I can think of from my own life are being confident that I will have the support from others throughout, careful planning to avoid being under too much pressure at the one time and taking time to learn how I personally respond in certain situations and knowing where your limit is but I guess the most important one is to learn when to say no which I have struggled to do in the past.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you find it helpful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback/thoughts, I always love to hear it. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

Kathryn