| At this stage of life, energy is everything. If your body is the house you live in, then energy is the electricity that keeps the whole thing running. Wasting it on comparison, perfection, holiday performance art, or outdated expectations? That’s like leaving every light in the house on while you sleep. Expensive. Draining. Pointless. So here’s your permission slip: Stop trying to be the woman you used to be. Start honoring the woman you’ve become. She’s wiser. She’s clearer. She’s over pretending. And she’s not interested in a life built around exhaustion. ⭐️ How to Protect (and Expand) Your Energy This Season Here’s your practical, no-nonsense list — the one that saves your sanity and restores your spark: 1. Stop competing with old versions of yourself. You’re not supposed to be her. You’re supposed to surpass her. 2. Choose a “bare minimum holiday.” Ask: What actually matters? Then eliminate everything else. 3. Cancel one draining tradition. Just because you did it for 20 years doesn’t mean it gets to eat your bandwidth forever. 4. Say “no” like a grown woman. No explanations. No apologies. A complete sentence. 5. Schedule recovery the same way you schedule commitments. If it’s not on the calendar, it won’t happen. 6. Lower the bar on what doesn’t matter. Store-bought pie is not a moral failing. 7. Raise the bar on what does matter. Connection > performance Presence > perfection Peace > productivity 8. Take a comparison detox. Mute accounts. Skip Pinterest. Put down the “perfect holiday” catalogs. 9. When envy hits, ask: What is this feeling pointing me toward? It’s a compass, not a condemnation. 10. Make joy a non-negotiable. Tiny joys count. In fact, they count more. 11. Respect your hormonal reality. Your body is not a machine. It is a messenger. 12. Stop treating your energy like a bottomless resource. You are not the family generator. You never were. ⭐️ The Only Joneses You Ever Need to Keep Up With Are the ones who live inside your imagination — the perfected versions of your past self who no longer match your current life, values, biology, or bandwidth. Let her go. She served her purpose. She built the foundation. She carried the weight. And now your job is to build a life you don’t need to recover from. At this stage of life, the only competition that matters is: Are you becoming the woman you’re meant to be — or trying to resurrect a version of you that was never meant to last? You know the answer. |
