Dr. Nicole LePera

But I think that there's something to be said and powerful in flexibility.

Right.

In the moments where for whatever reason, physical, you've run out of energy, you get sick, you can't go to the gym and do what you want for one day for an extended period of time or forever.

Life happens.

Something interferes with our ability to produce.

Those are always, I think, the markers of when we're in a healthy relationship.

So when I'm forced to stop, just to apply to this conversation or shift out of my habit, whatever the habit is, right?

This one is producing, doing.

when I'm forced to stop or when I need to choose to stop because I'm sick physically or emotionally or something else needs my attention in this time or this moment or this season, can I be flexible enough to do that without feeling terrible about myself, without having consequences, right?

Where I'm now so uncomfortable that I'm driving myself into action even when I ought to be not pausing for whatever reason.

And I think when we can become rigid

when it doesn't matter what's happening around us, we just have to do these things because that's the only way we feel good, then I think there's something to be said about the helpfulness of developing flexibility or that ability to choose, to say, okay, contextually speaking now, for whatever reason, because I'm sick, because I'm exhausted, because I'm emotionally overwhelmed, because someone else needs me to do something else in this moment, can I continue with my day or my week or my season and still feel okay without myself?

I think it's important to hold space for both.

Okay.

Perhaps the reality that other people have contributed, whether it's in childhood or now, to our discomfort, our suffering, our habits, our hurt, our pain, because that's part of the journey is to acknowledge ourself, the impact that others have on us, especially if it's

early childhood, our parents impacting us by not meeting our needs to the best of their ability or well-intentioned even because they didn't have the tools.

That's how I always understand that.

But if we don't do that, then a lot of us just continue to suppress

the way we feel about what happened, the unmet needs, and all of these habits we continue to repeat based on those unmet needs.

So we are doing ourself a disservice, though we can be very savvy at doing it because it feels better.