To Thrive or Not to Thrive-- That Really is the Question Isn't It?

With the fall equinox mere days away, are you finding yourself looking at your life differently? Or wanting to?  Do you often feel like your day-to-day life is steeped in kids and partner and work and bills and pets and health challenges and preparing meals and etc.? Having family and friends to take care of can give our lives meaning, yes? But taking care of the needs and wants of others can also dominate every corner of our brain space--and potentially lead us down a path where we forget to take care of ourselves. To be able to show up in life as our best selves (in all the things we do), requires more than just surviving day to day. It requires shifting from merely surviving to thriving.

What are you truly doing, daily, for you-- so you can feel joy and excitement about the life you're here to live? Anything?

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There has been much ado for some time now about self-care for women. Cleveland Clinic notes in their article titled  "Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: 17 Tips for Making Yourself a Priority"

Self-care is so much more (and so much less expensive) than spa trips and vacation days — and it’s actually a critical element of your physical and mental health.

Therein lies the difference between surviving and thriving

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Renie Cavillari  wrote an article for Hospitality Upgrade about the subject titled, What's the Difference Between Thriving and Surviving?  In it, she points out that:

When we are thriving, we are in a creative, engaged mindset. We see abundance and tend to be open to achieving more of what we want in our work, relationships, and lives.

Surviving, on the other hand, is fear-based living. We tend to focus on the limitations we are faced with and can quickly move into blaming and shaming others. In survival, we see the problems – not the solutions – which causes us to generate more energy within us that doesn’t serve us.

 

How Do You Shift from Survive to Thrive?

Dr. Anna Akbari for Psychology Today suggests that the first step, is simply to decide to thrive.

Simply committing to thriving and leaving behind survival mode is the first and most difficult step. Survival is too often our default; there’s comfort in its familiar discomfort. But thriving is not only circumstantial (“when my life REALLY begins, I’ll thrive!”); it’s a choice....Shifting from surviving to thriving is a process of rewiring and remodeling the inner and outer landscape of your life...It takes deliberate, consistent action. Consider your mantras, identify what isn’t serving you, and clear the path.

You can also check out 31 Ways to Move from Surviving to Thriving here.