What happens when we work too hard?

So many of us nowadays work incredibly hard. Whether it’s at work, trying to climb the professional ladder, at school or university aiming for great marks, whether it’s at home with family and friends, trying to make the perfect relationships, trying to raise your children ‘correctly’, trying to please absolutely everybody. There’s no wonder why we are experiencing a period of extremely poor health. What is behind this seemingly insatiable need to achieve, to strive, to fly? For so many across the globe less fortunate than us, it is a dull ache that rubs against the back of the spine that we call hunger that motivates one to act. For us, it is more than this. It is the need to ‘keep up’, to be better in all the abovementioned areas.

The resultant stress, tension and angst accumulates and manifests itself in many ways: be it something acute like a nervous breakdown, a malign disease that creeps up quickly, or something more chronic and insidious like deep physical fatigue or glandular fever.

On the one hand, we can see these conditions, whatever they may be, as negative, incapacitating, even disastrous. On the other, we can see them as somewhat positive, presenting an opportunity for change and re-evaluation of one’s way of life. To fall is to slow down, then to stop, in some cases completely. Embrace this cessation of activity.

Think about eliminating habits that are detrimental to you and those around you. Consider decreasing your work load and simply take on less. Eat well, be still and always rest. For if you don’t stop, you will undoubtedly be forced to in some way down the track. So start now, and don’t wait for it to happen to you.