It is okay to do the bare minimum

For the whole month of April, my mom came over for a visit.

I decided to do the bare minimum to keep my practice going so we can maximize our time together.

I still meet with clients.

Though other than that I gave myself the permission to whip up nutritious dinner instead of going to networking events or spending the day at Van Dusen Botanical Garden instead of doing any work related activities.

Timing is everything, my mom is a fellow introvert, and there were times when we spent quiet time together reading. Recently a friend recommended this book Rest is Resistance, and I decided to pick it up and started reading.

The book got me thinking, contrasting my decision to rest and the grind culture that we live in.

It felt uncomfortable at first when I decided to rest when I live in a world that tells me that in order to be successful I have to be a certain way, going to certain events, and displaying certain behaviours.

It is super easy to feel overwhelmed and guilty for not keeping up with the grind.

My month of hibernation made me realize that it is okay to do the bare minimum

It is time to challenge these norms and embrace a more balanced approach in living our lives.

Coz you know what

You get to define what your life looks like, and not the society out there

The society puts so much pressure on us to be constantly productive and come up with something remarkable.

Though

Have we ever taken a moment to pause and actually define what productivity and being remarkable means?

Granted, constantly putting pressure on ourselves is a good recipe for burnout.

My personal healing journey, as well as my numerous encounter with clients, made me realize the importance to take a step back, pause, and reflect.

I was so used to doing, and keep going, sometimes quite aimlessly, not always aware of why I did certain things, for what, and in which ways those actions will contribute to my end goals.

That’s why resting and hibernating this past month have been super grounding and centering for me.

It reminded me of the reasons why I love doing what I do.

The space also made me reflect how I have transformed over time and where I see myself heading.

The space allowed me to reframe some of my own beliefs about myself and the world.

What do you mean by “it is okay to do the bare minimum?”

Being in this space also provided a massive shifts in my perspective from ‘constantly striving to be better’ to ‘while I look to constantly grow and evolve, it is totally okay to do the bare minimum (sometimes).

I get to be completely present and being fully in the moment

I am mindful that 'doing the bare minimum’ is typically associated with diong the bare bone of what needs to be done with no concerns over quality.

And that’s not what I mean here.

What I meant in this context is

Doing the best with what’s given to me at the moment

At the time of this writing, my mom was over for a visit, and we had a limited time together. I did the bare minimum to keep my practice running, though I did not do anything extra to make it grow. I still showed up 100% in my clinical setting. Though I didn’t do anything extra to get the word out there. Ideally for someone running a private practice, we need to have a good balance between providing services to our current clients and at the same time promoting our services to the world (so that new clients can find me).

What is the counter balance to “it is okay to do the bare minimum?”

Of course, there is nothing wrong at all with wanting to excel or be better.

While there’s time to do the bare minimum, there’s time to go all out in doing what we do.

In fact, I advocated for that, and that is the whole premise of what I do in my work, becoming clients’ sounding board so that they could identify what doesn’t fit in their lives and work towards alignment.

I just feel that the mentality of ‘constantly striving to be better’ conditions us to be elsewhere, future looking, and in some ways we could get ahead of ourselves.

Claiming this space means celebrating my milestones, what I have already had in my life

This reminds me of my experience gardening.

Once I planted the seeds, I will be anxiously waiting for those seeds to come into fruition.

It was good to remind myself that there is beauty every step of the way, in seeing a teeny tiny bud pushing itself off the ground all the way to a hardy, tall plant that bears fruit.

Hello, I’m Nita Agustin

Registered Clinical Counsellor based in Burnaby, BC

My jam is working with queer youth and young adults, especially those who do not want to be defined by what society told them about themselves. I help clients figure out who they are, who they want to be, and how to get there. We do this by processing how their past impacted the way they live out their life today. From our work together, I noticed clients develop better self-awareness and experience improved quality of life as they can show up differently in their relationships.

I offer virtual and in-person sessions near Brentwood, North Burnaby. I am licensed to practise in BC, as well as all across Canada, so I support clients all over BC, all the way from Vancouver to Kitimat. Other than working with clients who reside in BC, I also can support clients who reside in Yukon Territories, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland.

Check out my About me page to learn more about what I do and have to offer for you. Also, explore my Services page to see how I can guide you in making shifts in your life today. If you feel ready to discover ways to live life on your own terms, I welcome you to book an initial intake session. I am so stoked to meet you and start figuring out how you can show up as your best self!

Throughout this pandemic, I witnessed telehealth virtual sessions become more of a norm, and it has been super transformative seeing clients can access mental health services from the comfort of their home.

There are lots of different stereotypes out there, and society tells us who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do in the world. It can feel very overwhelming and confusing to compare our personal experience against those ideas. The thing is, you no longer have to be defined by what society tells you. It is your life to live, and you get to decide who get a say about your life.