I began my Facebook #365 Live Challenge in a blaze of glory and motivation to create videos that would help people to change how they lived their lives.
I got regular feedback that I was doing just that and as scared as I was starting on this journey of filming them, I absolutely loved the fact that I was helping people to begin to live their own versions of extraordinary.
Along the way though and midst pandemic my energy dipped.
My newsfeed had been super positive for as long as I remembered as I'd cleared up my energies around me long ago.
I wasn't prepared therefore for a pandemic to split the world in half.
And although I don't read the news, the constant ever changing restrictions and rules I found myself under living in the UK during it I felt obliged to check.
The news which is known for it's "eyes on" approach (using panic to get you to read) was even worse. A pandemic is like a once in a lifetime event for a journalist so they were wanting to milk it for every fear inducing drop.
The emotions, the politics, the views, the freedom of speech restrictions......all of it.
I felt every single part of this, as I'm sure you have too.
As a mental health specialist my focus was and always will be on peoples wellbeing.
And that for me includes mental health as well as physical health which the politicians were less focused on.
So, when after nine months of being in the midst of all of this, I felt my energy really slide so I knew something needed to change.
I'd started my Facebook live challenge by saying "I will show up daily no matter what".
Christmas Day, birthdays, Sundays, I'd committed to my audience and myself that I would show up and stick to my word whatever happened in my life.
I believe how you do one thing is how you do everything and I wasn't about to quit that easily.
So I carried on for another few weeks, but my energy still continued to dip.
And as much as I feel sadness and all the feelings a human does, as a Coach there's a part of me that has to show up with a high amount of energy.
I go first, I lead the way, I provide the inspiration.
And showing up consistently on Facebook had honestly been life altering for me in a good way.
On Day #1 it took me over thirty minutes to press the 'go live' button. I was used to speaking on stages but Facebook lives were another thing altogether.
Talking into your phone, seeing the numbers of people watching and reading comments as you're going is multi tasking on another level!
Then I'd said that I wouldn't have any notes. I was always someone who presented behind slides, they were my comfort blanket.
And showing up everyday "no matter what" was a huge leap for me. I value my time off and actively promote this. My four hour workdays are well known and I almost always take weekends off.
Along the way I've become better on camera, someone who can speak on topics I love without notes and I'd enjoyed helping people to create different lives for themselves.
The issue though that I found with "No matter what" is that actually having a clause like this with yourself isn't always a good thing.
"No matter what" shouldn't override a feeling of "bad".
Showing up on social media amidst a pandemic was actually making me feel bad.
In fact I felt like I'd lost my voice.
I'd kept so much of my truth inside of me about how I really felt about what was happening that it actually stopped me from speaking at all.
So, that's when I knew I had to stop. I decided to come off social media for a while and stop my Facebook lives.
Even though I felt I'd let myself down and those around me, I needed to do it for me.
I needed to re-energise, I needed to gain a fresh perspective and I needed to get away from the hysteria I was seeing online.
And after just three days I felt totally different.
I think I needed to be able to differentiate the difference between resting and quitting.
A rest is temporary. Something that you do when you're tired, hungry or feel misaligned. Quitting is permanent.
So, when we choose to rest for a while, it doesn't have to lead to quitting.
It's like when you go off the wagon for one day on a diet and you feel like there's no point carrying on (the old fashioned way of thinking).
But instead, we rest.
We take a day off, relax, exercise, meditate or journal.
We do all the things that make us feel re-energised to carry on our journey.
This is exactly the time to keep going.
This is exactly the time the world needs our energy and our light.
This is exactly the time to choose to rise for yourself and those around you.
I'll be starting my lives again soon as my rest stop has given me exactly what I needed.
The old me would have panicked and thought that I might as well just quit.
But I don't quit on the things that I'm aligned to do.
Taking a rest isn't something to be punished for, it shows we're human
Conclusion
Now that you know that resting is actually good for us and it doesn't have to lead to quitting, if you find that you need a break, take a rest, just don't quit (unless you want to).
Love
Nikki xx
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