Feeling the pressure

Words: Naomi Levine

Pressure. Even the word sounds heavy. It’s literally everywhere isn’t it? From that Instagram post telling us that we should probably skip the lie-in and do that early morning HITT class, or the passing word from a relative ‘so what are you doing for your career again?’, if we’re not careful we can crumble under the pressure of, well, pressure. I’m feeling it right now. Are you? 

In our society there are many voices speaking, telling us what we should do/ be/ achieve/ remember/ prioritise in order to do life well, and many of these really, I would say, are good. We need to feel some pressure in order to grow and to get moving.

But in amongst all of the good, it’s very easy for negative pressure to sneak in, unnoticed. Pressure that can even hinder our growth and isn’t from God. Recently, I’ve started to notice a few suspicious feelings of pressure active in my thinking, that I didn’t intentionally put there and didn’t invite to the party. I think some pressure we unknowingly impose upon ourselves, while at other times it has a more external root.

Rather than throwing this negative pressure out entirely, maybe it needs to be re-thought, re-formed, re-wired into ‘right pressure’. ‘Wrong pressure’ is often an issue of balance, and perspective, more than anything. Maybe there’s some good truth hiding in there. So I want to propose that we call out some of this pressure into the open and have it questioned.

If we feel a pressure to please other people with our life decisions, maybe we could reform this thought to instead begin thinking ‘I don’t need to please people. But I can enjoy hearing their perspective in order to inform my own.’

Or maybe you, like me, sometimes feel a pressure to turn creative interests into ‘something more’ in order for them to be valid, and in this thinking, you lose your enjoyment for them. We can take this thought, and reform it: ‘I’m free to enjoy things without needing to squeeze extra purpose out of them. But I will listen to my intuition if something is to turn into more than just a hobby.’ By easing this burden off ourselves, our joy in creativity will likely spark again.

I’ve compiled a list of releases that I hope could spark a conversation with yourself. God is the God of freedom so let’s be released from the things that hold us back and tell us to conform.

Be released from the pressure to have a ‘thing’.

Be released from the pressure to define yourself by something you do or are interested in.

Be released from the pressure for things you enjoy to become a career or a new ministry, and the expectation that you should be an expert at something in order for it be worth you doing at all.

Be released from the pressure to be original.

Be released from the pressure to ‘be’ what you think you ‘should be’.

Be released from the pressure to be what other people think you are.

Be released from the pressure to be liked. Understood. Seen in order to be valid.

Be released from the pressure to try and solve all of society’s issues by yourself.

Be released from the pressure to figure it all out before you start.

Be released from the pressure to live an extraordinary life, and know that your ordinary life is beautifully extraordinary already.

Let’s throw off anything we’ve placed on ourselves that isn’t kind to us, that kills our enjoyment, dead-ends our inspiration, and eclipses our true purpose. And in releasing ourselves, let’s be reminded of our purest purpose, that we are greatly loved daughters of the King. He came to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10), and to dance in the freedom He brings.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders… and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” Hebrews 12:1.

Maybe by throwing off the weights that slow us down, we’ll find new opportunities to step into. But by that same thread, let’s not feel the pressure of always needing to step into something new.

It’s cool. No pressure, hey. 😊