Running for Your Life or Running Your Life?

I am going vacation with my family to Sag Harbor, New York. My family rented a house with a dear friend and her family. There's no agenda for the week aside from decompressing and spending some quality time together. This is my son's first time at the beach...so aided by his father he can try out some of the things that he learned in swim class. As for me, I've got some books, some magazines and some lounging time calling my name.

I am a firm believer in vacations and the power of doing nothing. For me it's not about laziness, but I need time to re-charge my mind and my body. Moreover, like most people people I am more relaxed when I am on vacation. This altered state of mind, coupled with a different locale very often unblocks my creative juices. I got the idea for the motherhood anthology, Who's Your Mama: The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers (Softskull Press/Counterpoint, 2009) while I was on vacation in San Miguel, Mexico.

Many of us are running ourselves ragged because we are scared. We are attempting to be prove our worth---to be indispensible because we are afraid simply being ourselves isn't going to cut it. We may be afraid that we'll loss our jobs if we take some time off, or we may be afraid that someone will not like us if we say no to a burdensome favor. But how do we change our actions if we choose not to sacrifice our mental and physical well-being to our fears?

What is the pay-off if you work 100 hours a week and still lose your job or you run every community event and you still are never invited to be part of the "in crowd?" How does your life change when you say that you are good enough and then move toward finding your bliss rather than running away from pain? You may still work 100 hours a week, but you'd love every minute of it-- Or you may decide that a job that requires that type of commitment is not aligned with your life's desires.

So this week, think about how you re-connect with your spirit. Are running at a breakneck pace because you are afraid to stop, or because you are having too much fun sampling all of the world's treasures?