Do you sometimes hear that voice coming at you, no matter how much you’ve done, how late you’ve stayed up studying, how hard you’ve worked, or how many hours you’ve spent on getting your place to look tidy and clean? No matter how much time and energy you’ve invested on getting those chores done: children fed, their homework done, dishes done and chaos averted?

You’re probably ready to tell me, “No, really —it just hasn’t been enough.”

Is it starting to feel difficult to fall asleep at night, going over all those moments where you feel you could have done “just a little better”, “pushed just a little bit harder”?

If so, chances are that little voice, your constant companion, started forming when you were very young, learning to trust and make sense of the world around you. Something in your environment sent you the message that no, it wasn’t enough. YOU weren’t enough. Perhaps it was someone you can clearly remember, even words that were explicitly said. Or perhaps you can’t really bring to mind anything specific —just the feeling of always falling short. 

Whichever the case, I hope in those moments of despair, of feeling like you’re almost disappearing amidst your own demands, you can remember to give yourself some love. Yes, sometimes that’s all it takes. That’s all you needed back then, and today you get to choose to give yourself just that. I hope you can find some kind words for yourself, and allow yourself to have a self-compassionate moment where you get to remind yourself of everything you HAVE actually done, of the people that truly CARE about YOU and how you have their love no matter how much or how little you do. I hope you can take a deep breath to let yourself feel them within you, let their care for you warm you up from inside, and say quietly to yourself, “of course I am enough.”