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Maybe you can relate to my struggle right now: Lately, it seems like words wash over me more than I absorb them. My mind feels fractured; even when I think I’m fully present, I find that any lull makes me want to reach for my phone, check that notification, or think up how I’ll respond to that email I really need to send, ASAP.
There’s such a push to be everywhere, doing everything, that it can be hard to unplug — and as a result, we’re (or at least I’m) sloppier with details than ever before. My relationships suffer.
As a way to reset and refocus myself, I’m rereading a book that tackles this very subject: Present Over Perfect, by Shauna Niequist. It just so happens to coincide with a 6-week study series Niequist is launching to help people get more out of her self-help book. I plan on going through it, slowly but surely, uncovering what I can about myself — and reclaiming what was lost in the ever-present frenzy to be faster, better, closer to some cultural idea of “perfect.”
Niequist’s offering the first two chapters of her book, the first week’s study guide, and a 28-day reflection journal, for free. The first section’s all about pain points: uncovering the life we think we want, and the agony we’ll put ourselves through to get to that ideal. That hit me to my very core, getting me excited to read and work through the series. If you’re interested too, you can download the resources here.
Here’s the schedule for the entire Present Over Perfect series:
- Week 1 — Pain points
- Week 2 — The roles we play
- Week 3 — Yes, and no
- Week 4 — Unflashy, Unspectacular, Good
- Week 5 — Living The Love
- Week 6 — Recap of everything we’ve covered so far
Each week is designed to help you work through the things that keep us from being fully present, self-aware and centered. It’s a roadmap to shaking off the need to hustle for your self-worth, so you can realize and own that you are enough, as-is. Even still, Niequist is the first to admit her series isn’t a silver bullet:
“There is no finish line here, no magical before-and-after. Probably you will not always live in this new, brave, grounded space. Let me be clear with you: I don’t. I still get pushed off center, thrown into fear and proving, wound up into a tangled mess of expectations and opinions of who I should be and what I should do,” she writes in the reflection journal.
But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost and you should give up now. Like exercising or eating right, it’s something you weave into your lifestyle. When you fall out of it, you just find a moment to meditate and really take in with all of your senses what it’s like to be in this moment, as messy as it may be. You can go back to the reading, to the exercises, and find your way back. So far, it’s worked for me, and I hope it does for you, too.
Get a taste of Present Over Perfect with this essay, inspired by a section of her book.
Photo: Averie Woodard/Unsplash