Choosing Presence Over Performance

By Harper Sabin

Edited by Taylor Morgan

We don’t always have to be the character version of ourselves. Not every moment needs to be impressive. Not every day needs to feel like a chapter that pushes the plot forward. Sometimes, the most meaningful thing we can do for ourselves is not grand at all. It is simply being present, sitting and existing without trying to optimize or prove something.

Angèle / @arterepos on Pinterest

We have been conditioned to treat our lives as if they are supposed to constantly build toward something. A better version of ourselves, a more productive version, a more admirable version. Somewhere in that, simply being human feels unfinished, flawed and incomplete.

Romanticizing life is not the problem. Noticing the sweetness of small things, your morning cup of coffee, the sunlight hitting your bedroom window perfectly or your mom calling you after a long day, actually grounds us more. Gratitude is the easiest way to return to yourself and be present. The real weight starts when we try to turn meaning into an assignment.

When every week must contain growth. When every season needs to be a new identity. When rest starts to feel like you are falling behind. When the silence of being still in yourself starts to feel like failure.

Here is my take on that. Sometimes we don’t need reinvention or a new direction. Sometimes we only need the honest version of ourselves. The version that is alive without performing, producing or sorting your days into significance.

Sometimes the most human thing we can do is exist without editing ourselves at all.