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Hi, I am Jennifer - yoga instructor, Ayurvedic wellness educator, soul purpose coach, and rest guide. I have been practicing, studying & teaching yoga for over half of my life. I teach Ayurveda-inspired yoga with an emphasis on aligning with the daily rhythms and seasonal cycles. In addition to teaching yoga, I am passionate about helping women develop habits that create more ease in their lives, connect to their own inner knowing, and uncover their deeper purpose.
Join me on this podcast journey as I explore radical rest, sacred rhythm, embodied yoga, nature rewilding and divine soul purpose. The goal of this podcast is to help women shift from worry to wonder, irritation to interest, stagnation to stamina, and separation to connection. Wisdom for Women from Yoga and Ayurveda will inspire women to transform knowledge into wisdom through deep rest, wonder, and lived experience.
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the Wisdom for Women from Yoga and Ayurveda podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Allen. In this episode, episode 19, we will examine toxic productivity. This podcast episode is based on a webinar series I did in 2021.
Of course, at that time we were well into the coronavirus pandemic. And I think there were a sector of people who slowed down during this time. And there were a sector of people who ramped up. I was one of the people who ramped up my work, my productivity, my doing. I had created multiple programs and offerings. I had over 20 one-on-one clients. It really was the peak of Jennifer Allen yoga and wellness. And it was completely unsustainable. Midway through the year, I realized I was in toxic productivity mode.
Now I had been in this mode many times before. Toxic productivity is an old, old friend of mine, but I realized that this mode of being really no longer served me. And it was at this time that I recommitted to my rest practices, to the practice of radical rest. I had started exploring radical rest in 2017, but in 2021, I really committed to and devoted myself to the practices of rest. Now, let's back up though. Let's examine this idea of toxic productivity. What do I mean by this? Toxic productivity could be kind of like a buzzword for alcoholism. No, workaholism, excuse me. But it's a little bit more nuanced than, than just that old school phrase of workaholism or being a workaholic.
Toxic productivity really is essentially an unhealthy desire to be productive at all times, at all costs, right? It's this drive, this feeling that you need to go the extra mile at work or at home, even when it's not expected of you. And the thing about toxic productivity, it doesn't let up once the task is complete. Once you're technically done with a project, you might feel guilty for not having done more. Toxic productivity can make us feel like we're a failure if we're not constantly doing and producing. And in this toxic productivity mode or cycle, our worth is related to our productivity. We feel like our worth is related to our productivity. It's really looking at each day, looking at our lives and judging each day and judging our lives for what we haven't done rather than looking at what we have done. I'm not sure if any of you are resonating with this idea of toxic productivity, if this is new for you, but this podcast episode really is for you if you feel endlessly busy and you feel like you've been that way for a long, long time.
This podcast episode is for you if you are starting to feel like you're no longer available for the outdated belief that your value and worth is determined by what you do or produce. This podcast episode is also for you if you are burnt out or if you're burning out and you're looking for a new way to live and you're curious about rest practices. So let's settle in and explore. Let's examine this idea of toxic productivity. Again, Toxic productivity is essentially an unhealthy desire to be productive at all times, at all costs. And I want to allow you guys to assess yourself. Are you in toxic productivity mode? And I'm going to give you 10 or so questions. And I want you to answer these to the best of your ability, yes or no, to sort of self-assess if you are in toxic productivity mode. All right?
Do you have a lot of work-related or job-related guilt? Now, your job might be caretaking, might be outside the home, whatever your job may be. Do you have a lot of work or job-related guilt? Okay. Number two, do you have fatigue and exhaustion, even first thing in the morning? Number three, when you complete a project or a task or a chore, do you give yourself a break or do you run right into the next project? Number four, are you constantly asking yourself, what should I be doing now? Number five, do you work to the extent it harms your own health? Number six, do you work to the extent that it harms your relationships? Number seven, do you forget or neglect obligations and personal responsibilities due to work? Number eight, do you have difficulty with rest or stillness? Number nine, is it difficult for you to be emotionally and physically present with others? And the last one, do you have feelings of lower self-worth when you are not producing or working?
All right. You can even pause this episode and go back and listen to those if you need to contemplate the questions again. But what I notice is your first initial gut reaction is usually correct. So when we talk about toxic productivity, you can assess yourself here. Are you in toxic productivity mode? And what is driving our toxic productivity? And what's driving it is our beliefs. And I would even say, excuse me, limiting beliefs or outdated beliefs. Limiting beliefs are outdated beliefs that keep you from seeing what is possible for yourself. So most of us have limiting beliefs around our worth and around our work. Where do these limiting beliefs come from?
These limiting beliefs can develop in childhood. when you aren't always able to process what's happening. Limiting beliefs can also come from your family of origin, your cultural upbringing, and limiting beliefs can come from our relationships, experiences, and societal conditioning. All of us have limiting beliefs. All of us have outdated beliefs that are keeping us from our future self. Let me give you a few examples of limiting beliefs around productivity, around self-worth. I don't deserve to make more money. I don't deserve to make money doing what I love. I'm not talented. I have no special strengths. Everyone else gets the good jobs and the promotions. You're not supposed to like what you do. Everyone expects too much of me. I'm such a failure. That's just my luck. I don't deserve a better life. Things just don't work out for me. Who am I to have everything I ever wanted? I'm just a stay-at-home mom, right? These are all limiting beliefs that really can keep us stuck.
And there's a process I want to share with you about clearing limiting beliefs pertaining to your worth and your productivity. What we want to do is clear these limiting beliefs so we can step out of toxic productivity mode. So we want to clear limiting beliefs around toxic productivity and self-worth. This is your process. Write down all the beliefs you have about that topic. It's important to get all the beliefs out on paper. Take your time. Go back after this episode, write down all the beliefs you have about your job, your service, your caretaking, and toxic productivity. Once you have all those beliefs, thank them. Thank these beliefs for how they have protected you and served you up to this point. Now forgive yourself and others for these beliefs. Then give yourself permission to honor these limiting beliefs and move past them. Give yourself permission. And finally, rewrite these limiting beliefs and outdated beliefs as new, limitless, updated beliefs. For example, you're not supposed to like what you do. That's an outdated belief. An updated belief could be, I love what I do. I love what I bring to this world. I love what I create. I love how I serve. And so working on our limiting beliefs, our outdated beliefs can help clear The energy around toxic productivity mode. I really want you guys to consider your relationship with toxic productivity. You can do so through that self-assessment. You can do so through the exercise on limiting beliefs. And I have a few affirmations, a few statements that I use in regards to toxic productivity. These are inspired by the NAP ministry. If you don't know the NAP ministry, look them up online, social media. They are having brilliant conversations about toxic culture, toxic productivity, capitalistic culture, and rest. So check them out. Okay, number one, I will stop worrying about being productive. I will stop worrying about productivity. My obsession with productivity is just a result of capitalism. I can stop worrying about my productivity. I've been brainwashed by this grind and hustle culture, which has kept me in a cycle of overworking, overproducing, and over committing most of my life. So my first affirmation, I will stop worrying about productivity. The second one, I'm not lazy. I must take time to grieve the systems that have taught me about my inherent worth. My worth is not related to my productivity. I'm not lazy because I'm respecting my body's needs for rest. I know I'm more than my labor. I am not lazy. I am rested and free." I'll share with you guys this story. This is a lifelong habit of mine. I remember doing it as a child. If I'm in my room or if I'm in a location by myself and I'm just resting, maybe I'm daydreaming. Maybe I'm looking out the window at the trees. Maybe I'm creating a story for myself, but I'm literally doing nothing. There's no book. There's nothing there. Sometimes I even do it when I'm reading, but if I'm reading, sitting or laying and reading or sitting and laying and daydreaming, if someone walks in on me or if I hear someone come in the house, I immediately get up and pretend I'm doing something. Because I have been so ingrained by my culture, by my upbringing, that resting is lazy and that you're not worthy if you're not producing. And so I invite you to explore your beliefs and your habits and practices about toxic productivity and about rest. And if this episode has struck a chord in you, If you really resonate with this idea of being stuck in toxic productivity mode, or this idea that your worth is related to what you do or produce, I want to invite you to join us in the Fall Rest Reset. Now, I've been guiding online Ayurvedic resets since 2018. Typically in these resets, we focus on our diet, to aid in the transition of seasons. But this year, I've decided to offer a rest reset because over the last year and a half, two years, I have realized that rest is the foundation for everything. The foundation for everything is rest. So starting October 15th, we will lie down and rest together. During this fall rest reset, we will rest for physical exhaustion, we will rest for mental exhaustion, and we will rest for soul exhaustion. And we'll do so through the practice of yoga nidra. I know caretaking can be exhausting. And as caretakers, we often fall into this mode of toxic productivity. We serve and support and care for others. And we even do so, we continue to do so at the expense of our own health. This fall rest reset will include three live calls on the 15th, 22nd, and 29th of October. During these calls, we will explore all aspects, not all, we will explore several aspects of the practice of Yoga Nidra, and then we will lay down and rest together. These live calls will be about an hour spent in community. And then each week you'll receive a recording just of the Yoga Nidra portion. And then another small recording describing a five-minute rest practice for the week. So the idea is to rest every single day during our 21 days together. You might be able to do the 30-minute yoga ninja practice, or you might be able to do the five-minute simple rest practice, or maybe both. But the invitation is to make a commitment to rest, to devote time to rest each day and see what can happen. See what can unfold in your life. See what happens when you commit to a rested life. See what happens when you devote yourself to radical rest. Thank you so much for being here today and exploring this idea of toxic productivity with me. Until next time, I see you, I appreciate you, and I love you.