Alice Catherine

Over the festive period, I thought a lot about how difficult we often find it to just switch off and not feel guilty that others might not necessarily be taking a break at the same time. We are a society obsessed with being busy and burning ourselves out – we love telling people about it, using it as an excuse, and tweeting about it until our hearts content. Gosh, I’m so busy this week – it’s become something to be proud of, and we often forget the balance is the key to happiness. Over Christmas, I didn’t really know what to do with myself, and for the first few days, I found myself feeling incredibly exhausted, and almost a little glazed over. I put this down to having a couple of none stops months before hand – the constant hustle and bustle of everything had finally died down, and now my body and brain were experiencing some sort of come down… 

Don’t get me wrong, being busy IS great, especially if you have had a really quiet month previously, and you’re more than ready for a dose of healthy stress in your life. It keeps us on our toes, it teaches us to be organised, and it often forces those who freelance to create some sort of routine (and stick to it). I guess the negative side of being busy that I’m referring has more to do with those that just simply don’t cut themselves any slack. The ones who find it really hard to to draw the line between ‘being a girl boss’, and actually reaping the rewards of the work they do, and having some kind of social life in-between. We need to remind ourselves that working hard doesn’t mean we have to suffer constantly, and it definitely doesn’t mean we need to be running around like a headless chickens either – it’s a guaranteed way to exhaust ourselves, and in turn, create work that’s not to the best of our ability… 

Having a creative/imaginative mind can be both a blessing and a curse at times – you’re constantly creating new projects for yourself, and falling in love with new ideas. Then what feels like two minutes later, you want to rearrange everything again, and start on something else…

It becomes this endless list that you never feel like you’ll get on top of. Especially if you’re anything like me, and your brain decides to illuminate every idea you’ve ever had as soon as your head hits the pillow. It can be very easy to get caught up in the rat race of the current climate, and forget that it’s not actually normal to be working ourselves seven days a week. We need breaks in order to function and be the best versions of ourselves – we need holidays, social times, and times just sat in front of the TV without our phones lighting up beside us. This is something I’m vowing to be better at this year – sometimes just need to tune out what others are doing so that it doesn’t distract us from our own progress. It’s healthy to enjoy the successes that other people are experiencing, but don’t let it make you feel intimidated. Take inspiration from it, but don’t for a second believe that it somehow makes your work less worthy – everyone works at different rates, everyone succeeds at different times, and absolutely everyone needs to take time out for themselves. 

I should also highlight that being in a particular line of work that’s constantly demanding of your time, can in turn, have a negative impact on your mental health when it all starts to slows down – this definitely happened to me over the festive period. Suddenly all the noise stopped, and I was left to process things that I hadn’t dealt with whilst I was busy – because I was distracted. Being distracted can only act as a coping method for a certain length of time, then your brain has to be able to process things in order to be proactive and move forward. The moral of the story? Don’t always feel the need to be so horrendously busy in order to be successful, strive for quality over quantity, and remind yourself that taking a break will only improve your work when you come back to it…

Alice x

Photographs by Adriana

Coat c/o – New Look | Jumper c/o – Topshop | Jeans – Vintage Levi’s (similar here)| Shoes – Mango

SHOP THE LOOK