"I was in the middle of responding to my third "urgent" email of the morning when I realized I hadn't tasted my coffee. The cup sat there, half-empty and cold. I had no memory of drinking it. That small moment became the crack that let the light in. Because if I couldn't remember drinking my coffee, something I claimed to love, something I looked forward to every morning, what else was missing?"
"I was the person who responded to emails at midnight, who took calls during lunch, who never said no. I told myself I was being productive. Dedicated. A team player. But the truth was darker. I was running on autopilot, moving from task to task, deadline to deadline, crisis to crisis, without ever stopping to check in with myself. My body started sending signals, tension headaches, a tight jaw that I'd clench without realizing, shoulders that lived somewhere near my ears."
A person realized they had no memory of drinking their morning coffee, which revealed a broader pattern of living on autopilot. Years of wearing stress as a badge of honor included late-night emails, taking calls during meals, and never saying no. The body produced tension headaches, a clenched jaw, and raised shoulders as warnings that went ignored. A sudden panic-like episode while driving produced chest tightness and breathlessness, prompting a recognition of a profound absence of self. That moment exposed how constant busyness and 'productive chaos' disconnected experience from awareness and forced a necessary reexamination and change.
Read at Tiny Buddha
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]