Relax

We know the season we’ve been travelling through has been anything but relaxing for the most part, but the relaxing we’re referring to is an approach to life that goes deeper than ‘surface’ relaxation.

After hearing author Elizabeth Gilbert speak at a breakfast in Inspirations’ hometown of Adelaide some time ago, we’ve been trying to approach life from a somewhat more relaxed position.

Elizabeth is on a mission to free women from ‘purpose and passion anxiety’ as she questioned the notion that we’re ‘supposed’ to be striving to find our purpose and passion in life. Rather, she encouraged the audience to approach life from a more relaxed perspective.

Instead of feeling the pressure and anxiety that is often accompanied when searching for our one true purpose in life, working diligently to hone this skill and then finding ways to use it to make a difference to those around us, Elizabeth challenged us to ‘relax’ into the same result from simply spending time with the people we love and serving them with what comes naturally to us.

She reminded us that the often anxious and worry-wrought way we approach life does not serve us well, but rather convinces us that we can increase our control over what happens to and around us if we just hold on tight enough and worry long enough.

We realised this to be true not just in life, but also in our time with needle and thread.

Have you ever felt your grip tighten on the needle as you try and learn an unfamiliar stitch or sensed the rising tension in your shoulders as you unpick the same section of stitching yet again?!

Whilst we’re big believers in persevering, after hearing Elizabeth, we realised there are times we need to recognise our rising anxiety and simply walk away from our stitching until we’re ready to relax into our time with needle and thread.

Not only will this approach likely increase our progress with needle and thread, but we think our fingers and shoulders will thank us for it as well!