Below, Christine Platt shares five key insights from her new book, Less Is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm.
Christine is an advocate for personal liberation, known as The Afrominimalist. Her writing and workshops help people reclaim their lives by doing less and living more intentionally.
What’s the big idea?
Overwhelm is not meant to be a lifestyle, yet many of us live as if it is. When that becomes our baseline, it depletes us physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. But we hold the power to choose otherwise—to say no to what consumes us and yes to what liberates us.
1. The importance of understanding our overwhelm.
Overwhelm isn’t just a feeling. It’s a sign, a symptom, a warning. When we feel overwhelmed, it is our body’s way of telling us, Hey, we’re nearing capacity. Actually, we are at capacity. So, we really need to pause to care for ourselves.
But the challenge is pausing to heed that warning. Far too often, we miss the warning entirely! We just continue doing the most we can, moving through our days exhausted, and believing that being at capacity is just the way of life. Overwhelm simply becomes our baseline.
Our lives don’t have to be this way. The normalization of overwhelm is how we convince ourselves that exhaustion is inevitable. So, we ignore all the signs and symptoms our bodies are trying to tell and show us, until it’s too late.
“We just continue doing the most we can, moving through our days exhausted, and believing that being at capacity is just the way of life.”
When we understand that overwhelm is our body’s way of signaling for help, we begin to see feeling depleted not as a weakness but as intuitive wisdom. Just like a car’s dashboard light means a vehicle needs our attention to function at its optimal level, when it comes to feeling overwhelmed, the same is true for us.
2. Being overwhelmed can make us unwell.
When overwhelm becomes our baseline, the consequences are real. We become physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. We lose clarity and connection—with others and, more importantly, with ourselves. When overwhelm becomes our baseline, we become unwell.
Often, we don’t even realize the toll overwhelm has taken on us until something forces us to stop, like an illness or mental breakdown. Sometimes, our bodies decide for us and we simply can’t push through anymore.
But we can be well again. Despite what mainstream media would lead us to believe, wellness isn’t reserved for people with endless time or resources. Wellness is something we can all practice daily. Prioritizing this truth is how we begin the journey to being well. Personal liberation starts with the radical act of saying, I deserve to be well.
3. Honoring ourselves by rethinking wellness.
There was a time when wellness wasn’t something we had to think about because it was a way of life. Before the invention of the light bulb, our sleep cycles aligned with the seasons and natural circadian rhythm of sunrise and sunset. Before transportation became so accessible, everything we ate was farm-to-table because we grew our own food and shopped locally within our own communities. And tips on wellness—from home remedies to ancestral wisdom—were passed down generationally.
“Wellness is less about how our lives look and more about how our lives feel.”
Alas, the good ol’ days of not needing to prioritize our wellness are many industrial revolutions behind us. Today, wellness isn’t as intuitive as it once was, largely because it’s become so commodified. It why we believe “being well” is something we can buy: a product, a retreat, a perfectly curated lifestyle. But true wellness isn’t transactional—it’s relational.
Wellness is how we connect to ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Which means wellness is less about how our lives look and more about how our lives feel. So, we have to learn to pause and self-assess our feelings of overwhelm. It’s how we begin the beautiful work of learning to honor ourselves.
4. Pausing is the pathway to being well.
Pausing is powerful. It’s where we step back, reflect, and ask, Is overwhelm my baseline? Am I unwell? And if so, why?
Occasionally feeling stressed is normal. There’s always going to be something or someone to ensure that. But when overwhelm becomes a part of everyday life, well then we have a bigger problem. Such a life is not sustainable. Sooner or later, you’re going to burnout or your body is going to give out.
So, how can we stop that from happening? How can we deal with overwhelm before it impacts heath? I’ve found it helpful to think of the five core areas of our health as Personal Wells:
- Physical Well: our vessel, our body. We fill it by eating a nutritionally well-rounded diet, drinking water, moving our bodies throughout the day, and getting adequate rest.
- Mental Well: what encompasses our mind and thoughts. We fill it by learning and processing new information, problem solving, and (when necessary) by working with a professional to help us navigate any psychological challenges and trauma.
- Emotional Well: all our feels. We fill it by allowing ourselves to feel our emotions rather than repressing, suppressing, or avoiding them.
- Social Well: interpersonal relationships, both romantic and platonic. We fill it by being in partnership with others and being members of communities where we feel seen, valued, welcomed, and heard.
- Spiritual Well: less about religion and more about our purpose. We fill it by engaging in meaningful work and activities that align with who we are and what we value most.
When any of our Personal Wells are depleted, we are unwell. It just takes one well that isn’t at capacity to risk draining the other areas of our health.
Pause allows us to notice those imbalances, whether it be caused by sleep deprivation from late nights or feeling isolated after moving to a new city. Once we notice what area of our health is depleted and draining us, we can begin making decisions to restore ourselves.
5. The necessity of choosing less.
Sometimes—most times—the freedom we’re seeking from our overwhelming lives can be found by pausing to use one of our most underrated superpowers: choices. We don’t have to “the most.” Have the most. Do the most. Be the most. We don’t have to deplete our Personal Wells to the point where overwhelm becomes baseline.
We can choose less. Less distractions. Less obligations. Less consumption. Less fatigue. Less prioritizing others over ourselves. By saying no to what drains us, we have more time and energy to say yes to what sustains us. By releasing what doesn’t serve us, we create room for what truly matters. Choosing less is how we find freedom from our lives of overwhelm, and the freedom for the lives we want and deserve. That is true liberation.
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