I got a little angry while writing this…

You don’t have to head straight into burning out for things to be too much sometimes (read that again).

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “information overload” before, and I don’t have to describe to you what that means because you've felt it in your body. Heck, you probably do most days.... (I know I do).

And even though you feeling this, is more than evidence enough, here are some stats to back up your experience (pro tip: observe what it feels like in your body as you read the following sentences):

A University of California, San Diego study found that the average Western citizen consumes the equivalent of 34 gigabytes of information daily, which translates into around 100,000 words of information coming at us every single day.

EVERY DAY.

That is like reading a whole novel every day (minus the laying on the beach part).

For comparison, only a hundred years ago humans had sensory inputs of 4-5 gigabytes or 10’000 - 15’000 words.

Remember when there were MP3 players with only megabytes and it was actually possible for you to listen to all the songs you had stored on there?

Yeah, it was like that.

Okay, so let’s play a little game I call:

Just an average day.

Say this is any given average day of yours, and say you did not have the ability to think about the past or the future, all you would do is simply….go about your day.

On that day your system would be confronted with 34 gigs of information.

That is overwhelming.

Period.

In fact, that is 50’000 times more than what a brain can consciously process on any given day.

That does not, I repeat, that does NOT include your additional internal “life stuff”,  the mental load, the inner critic, the woulda - shoulda - coulda’s that get dumped on top of just simply existing in this society that bombards you with infromation you may or may not have asked for.

And then…there’s the voice of shame:

"I'm convinced everyone else handles this better than me."

“I bet she’s a better mom than me.”

“How does she have it all together all the time?”

“He’s doing a much better job than me, I’ll never get the position.”

Honey,

first of all, none of that is true and secondly,

CAN YOU TELL ME HOW ANY OF US IS SUPPOSED TO FUNCTION LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING WHEN WE HAVE TO DIG THROUGH THE EQUIVALENT OF 9’300 PICTURES EVERY DAY?

*Moment of truth* - I am actually getting a little agitated as I am researching and typing this because we’re living in a society that not only makes it very hard on us, but also teaches us that self-compassion has no place and the way to beat the system is to “hustle” more. Whether that is just pumping out another email or doing another load of laundry, only to realize that… it doesn’t work and think: I still don't feel fulfilled, or better, or more accomplished.

You know why?

Because. It. Doesn’t. End.

So,

let me repeat with what I started:

You don’t have to head straight into burning out for things to be too much sometimes.

What if too much is the default?

What if “good enough” would have made you the most badass overachiever 100 years ago?

What if… you get to decide what too much is?

What if that doesn’t make you a bad, less than, weaker person?

What if that just makes you… human?

What if you allowed yourself to believe that it is normal to one day have more capacity than on another? Maybe there are days where 34 gigabytes are actually doable and fun! Those are the days we stand up and celebrate ourselves (and others!!).

I was inspired to write this to you this week because I had a couple days that were just a bit too full, just a bit too much.

My body signaled: “listen, you handled today but don’t keep going like this.”

And, you know how many times I have just ignored that voice?

Put the fact that “things just have to get done” over what my body was telling me?

There’s another reason I am telling you this:

An older version of me would have been ashamed to admit that it was too much. She would have pushed through, found an excuse, made it happen…

I don’t want to be her anymore.

Because, you know who shows up when you leave that version of you behind?

Not the perfect version who makes no mistakes, no.

The one who uses the voice of a best friend, who knows self-compassion, she says things like:

 “Wow today was a lot, I’m proud of you for making it trhough the day.”

Isn’t that what you need?

Isn’t that what you DESERVE every day after processing flipping 34 gigabytes of information??

I think you do.

Actually scratch that, I KNOW you do!

Have a great week!

Love,

Mel

🤍

Ps. All my posts are written by me, not AI (so please flag the typos). Today, the numbers were provided by ChatGTP, so while there may be variance in the stats and sources, pretty sure the message very much holds up. 😉