A talk on why you rush and overachieve even when you don't need to. The speaker traces this back to childhood protection mechanisms, how they keep you stuck in stress, and what it takes to actually slow down and heal that part of yourself.
In a previous session, we talked about Kyle the inner child, didn't we? And Kyle, the inner child, because of what she's experienced, is being protected by the other parts, like the helper and the achiever parts. So the achiever comes along and says, well, if I achieve things, I'll feel good enough and I'll protect that wounded inner child by getting praise and admiration from the world around me for all my great achievements. And the helper says, if I'm good and I'm helpful and I help everybody, then I'll be approved of. I'll be the good little girl or the good little boy and people will love me, think I'm amazing and great, and then they won't criticize and harm me and I'll protect the wounds within and so on and so on. Now what happens is these protective responses become life critical. And when something's life critical, like fight or flight, what do we do? We try to do them faster. We try to rush through things so we can maximise and do more and more. Instead of one achievement an hour, if I do two achievements in one hour, then I'm going to feel even better. Is this. Yeah. So we're just really going deep here, really, really unpicking how the mind works here. And it's not for me to say, this is your mind, it's for you to reflect. Does my mind do this or does it do something similar? Or maybe it does something different? But we're building awareness. Yes, I do rush. Why am I rushing all the time? Why is my mind rushing? You know, I have fatigue, I have these symptoms. Why am I rushing? Could it be that my achiever is so desperate to get as many things done as possible, running around like a headless chicken and pushing, pushing, pushing, maximizing even when I don't have energy and that's draining me of my life force. So rushing becomes a habit, a habit based upon the benefit that is perceived from rushing. I can get more done, do more things. And so now is a time that we can let go of that habit of rushing and be more in this present moment. Rushing is the antithesis of being mindful. In rushing, we automatically become unconscious because a part is driving us. Now we're not conscious anymore of what's going on. And so being conscious of am I rushing? Enables you to become more mindful. So isn't that amazing? Even rushing is an attempt at a protective response. It's an overprotective response, like a magic trick. Poof. Hopefully that's shifted things for us. We've always been rushing. It's always been the habit. You know, people say, oh, I need stress to make me do things right? That's how I achieve things. I need stress. It's good for me, right? Or I need a deadline, and then I rush and get things done. So, in a similar way, has habit. Has rushing become a habit? Overachieving, stressing, pushing become just a habit which contributes to us not pacing effectively, not slowing down, not calming our nervous system and immune system. Therefore, it always thinks it's under threat. So the reason rushing is so important is because when we rush, it automatically tells the brain that we're in danger and something's wrong.
