‘I QUIT. I quit being a mother, a partner, a friend – I quit being all of it.’: Woman encourages taking breaks for mental health, ‘We can get through today and start anew tomorrow’

“QUITTING… momentarily.

I QUIT so many times this weekend. Yes, you read it right – QUIT. I quit being a mother, a partner, a friend, I quit being all of it for a few minutes or hours.

I wasn’t good at replying to text messages, emails, or doing any ‘fun’ things with my kids.

I even sent an email to my newsletter friends and told them to find 5 minutes in their day to QUIT. NOT to give up, but to momentarily quit what isn’t serving us.

Because right now, in this freaking season of life and pandemic, so many of us are done, exhausted, depleted, suffocating, over it. Ten times over.

At this moment, quitting for a few minutes or hours feels like a solid option for momentary relief. Relief some of us are longing for in what feels like the constant replay of the Groundhog Day movie.

Of course, I’m NOT suggesting we give up on seeing this pandemic through and doing our part to keep each other safe, from showing up for ourselves, from parenting our children who are just as much struggling through this as we are. We can’t give up on surviving to eventually be able to revive and thrive.

Perhaps quitting the things that feel really hard, for a few minutes or until tomorrow, is what actually fuels our ability to not give up?

Maybe quitting right now is the same as setting hard boundaries and recognizing in this 93,654th overtime period in this game of life, we are no longer trying to do all of the things, all of the time.

This is a far stretch from a motivational speech, but I don’t think faking it ‘til we make it is going to get us through this in a way that honors our physical, mental, and emotional needs and see us flourish in this post-pandemic life.

I don’t know, these are just thoughts as I too keep holding on. We can get through today, and start anew tomorrow my friend!”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters  by Martine Chiasson of The Mama Movement. You can follow her journey on Instagram. Submit your own story  here, and be sure to  subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and  YouTube for our best videos.

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