Permission Granted to Enjoy Your Life Without Explaining It to Anyone
We’re taught to be responsible with our lives, but we’re not always shown how to truly enjoy them. As children, we’re encouraged to play and live in the moment, but somewhere along the way, that sense of freedom and lightness begins to fade. For many adults, enjoyment ends up on the other side of everything else. It becomes a destination rather than something to experience in the now.
Have we become so focused on being busy that we feel uncomfortable when we’re not fully occupied, missing out on the simple, everyday pleasures?
For many of us, life has been structured around responsibility. We’ve raised families, built careers, supported others, and shown up where and when we were needed. In those chapters, it made sense to put parts of ourselves on hold. But somewhere along that path, we begin to believe that enjoyment is something to earn, that rest must be justified, and that pleasure should come after everything else is done.
The truth is, everything is never fully done – and yet we wait.
We tell ourselves we’ll relax when things settle down. We’ll travel when the timing is better. We’ll take the class, read the book, write the book, or try something new when the time feels right. In other words, we’ll do it later. But later isn’t where our lives are meant to be lived. We’ll always have a to-do list. We may never feel fully ready. And life is happening right now.
“Create a life that feels good on the inside, not one that just looks good on the outside.”
– Unknown
At this time of year, there’s a sense of possibility in the air. That feeling of freedom that comes with warmer days can be an invitation to reconsider how we’re moving through our lives. We’ve been conditioned to think we need to do more, but what if we shifted our focus from doing to allowing? Instead of doing more, we allow more.
What if we allowed ourselves to pause in the middle of the day and rest without guilt? What if we allowed ourselves to say “no thank you” to what no longer feels aligned? And what if we allowed ourselves to choose what we enjoy, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else?
“Design a life you don’t need a vacation from.”
– Unknown
Would you consider taking a dance class simply because it energizes you, reading a novel in the late morning instead of checking off another task? Or perhaps for you, it’s continuing to work because you genuinely love what you do – or stepping away from work because you don’t.
There is no one definition of a well-lived life. Each of us gets to create our own version. Some people will travel, some will golf, and some will stay close to home and create a life that feels rich in different ways. All of it matters; what’s important is that it feels like you. This isn’t about dismissing other people’s opinions or being careless with our time. It’s about organizing our lives around what feels true for us. Our lives are not meant to be lived by someone else’s agenda, or on standby for anyone else’s needs.
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”
-Muhammad Ali
We’re the ones responsible for putting the joy in enjoyment. When we choose to live this way, we stop comparing ourselves to others, and we feel less pressure to do things that don’t resonate. Our days begin to reflect our own preferences and our own rhythm.
This kind of freedom is powerful. And when we stop waiting for the right time, or for the to-do list to be complete, we tap into a new way of living – what we at Wellings like to call the Carefreedom way of living. It’s about noticing what already feels good and giving yourself permission to choose it. Not later. Right now. No explanation required.
