Sincerely, Saskia

I’m not the first person, nor will I be the last person to tell you that, right now, things feel like hell.

The nature of my job means staying up to date with things is an occupational hazard, but even without that, we are at the stage in life where turning a blind eye to the ongoing atrocities in the world screams being complicit.

And although the everyday person doesn’t always have the power – or bandwidth – to make changes those in a position of power have a duty to address, there are things we can do. Donating, boycotting, spreading the word; awareness is free, and to any person with the slightest bit of ‘give a fuck,’ it’s crucial.

As someone with a sponge type personality who finds it difficult not to internalise other people’s issues, the current climate of things has been really hard. Even when choosing what to write about this month, I was faced with a list of mostly negative – albeit important – rants about everything political and societal that has pissed me off in the last month.

I, like so many others right now, have just felt burdened by the state of the world, which is why I’m serving as your reminder to prioritise things that protect your peace.

Tommy Robinson and his band of ignorant racists, ‘toxic femininity’ being used as a form of justification for male violence, the genocides in Palestine and Sudan, the poisonous spread of American politics and ignorance spearheaded by that convicted felon – I could go on and on and on, but I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

September often feels like a much-needed reset for me, but this month it was nothing of the sort. No perky optimism, no cathartic self reflection or helpful advice on how to cope with whatever you’re feeling. I, like so many others right now, have just felt burdened by the state of the world, which is why I’m serving as your reminder that no matter how exhausting as it might feel right now, you have to prioritise things that protect your peace for a little while. Unfortunately, all the bad will still be there when you get back.

Self care looks different for everyone: it doesn’t have to consist of face masks, steam showers and getting your nails done – although who doesn’t love good face mask. As it stands, although important, it’s not so much the physicality of self care that needs your attention at times like this, but your mental that needs to be nourished and protected from the constant barrage devastation caused by political inaction at the route of nearly everything bad going on right now.

I used to be quite good at resetting, taking stock of things and coming back recharged,  but I’m starting to feel like I’ve lost my ability to do so. Baking, writing, a good old self care Sunday, all were once things I’d do to reset my feelings – a focused task in the middle of my emotional storm that would centre me. But it’s increasingly harder to do that nowadays because everything just feels so constant.

And it’s not just about things going on in the world – Lord knows we all have our fair share of personal baggage that we can’t let go off. But whether it’s that or things grossly out of our control, finding peace in the little things is paramount.  

We all have roles in life, jobs to do, people who rely on us etc. but for that to stay functioning, we have to give ourselves a time out when things feel rough and coping doesn’t come easy.

Coping mechanisms have an expiry date, listening ears have their limits and there’s only so much sweeping it under the rug one rug can take. Whatever you do to centre yourself when you’re finding it hard to function, needs to be top of the list of your priorities because, and I hate to end on a cliche, but nothing works if you don’t work.

And I’m not just preaching, I’m very much taking my own advice on this one and reminding myself, and you, that there’s not shame, harm or downside to setting some of the work aside for yourself. Have that difficult conversation with yourself, get to the root of what’s causing this mental fatigue and do whatever you can to balance that pressure with everything else going on in your life.

It’s not going to happen overnight, but we should all know by now that taking some time to focus on yourself is never going to be the wrong choice.